What is the largest Battle ship on earth, that is operational, and in service ??

is it still the Russian Kirov class ?? !

[edit on 7-10-2004 by Kenshin]

[edit on 7-10-2004 by Kenshin]

sorry mate couldnt find the exact answer to your question but,

Largest battleship during ww2 was the japanese ship Yamato.

One of the largest U.S and last ships built was the U.S.S. Wisconsin.~

regards.

no more active battleships in the world...USS Missouri was the last active battleship in the world

Kessel is right. No more battleships.

Kirov is not a battleship, it's a battlecruiser.

I say they should bring back battleships, tho.

Yeah there are no more battleships, because during WW2 it was found out that they costed alot and that they could destroyed by air attacks quite easily.

Sorry, what I meant was ... 'What Is The Largest Surface Ship' Excluding aircraft carriers and supports ships

Well for ships I think it's oil tankers but non transport I think the Iowa class ships were fairly large. Still theres a good reason why battleships were taken out of service.

sorry my english must be very bad ... here ill try and make my Question clear

" Currently (2004) what is the largest military vessel, excluding aircraft carriers and support ships ... "

Hopefully ive stated my question clear enough this time

Kirov is the largest surface warship other than carriers. The usefullness of such a ship is questionable though. How exactly a battlecruiser like the Kirov could approach the carrier to get within "shipwreck" missile range in the open ocean is the question. (even if nuclear armed) It can't. They are also very manpower intensive and expensive to operate. I am not even sure if the Russians still have all three operational. Beautiful ship, impressive firpower, but not as useful to the war fighter. Polititions would be shaking in their boots though, and port visits to those who know no better would impress the world with Russian technology and ship construction. I see them as luxery yaughts for the national pride. Not weapons that can be used for much, other than to take out lesser navies than the major ones. I am sure the English (and maybe even the French) could make short order of a Kirov if they had to. (Both of those navies are vastly under rated, especially the Britiish) I would love to take a tour of one though.

My question is just how stealthy an object like a surface ship(even like this one you post) can be? Wake, thermal signature, noise, etc. Even visual satellite pictures. Even if it is invisible to radar, which I doubt since even the most stealthy aircraft can be seen on radar, just not targeted or tracked. Ships just don't move that fast. If you are a surface warship, you are on a target, and everyone in the world knows where you are. The only question is how many missiles to expend to send you to Davy Jones Locker...

How about a "covert" battlecruiser, just a large oiltanker on the outside and little or no armoured hull, but instead serious swarms of cruise missiles on board, while the survivabillity of the ship is pretty low, if you can keep the contents secret, it would make a pretty sneaky first strike platform, wich aims to drastically shorten the response time/distance and temporarlily providing too many simultanious airborn missiles to overload the quantitive capacity of even the qualitative best airdefence.


I could imaging such innocent oiltanker just "happens" to be passing through the strait of Taiwan , relatively close to its shore defences and naval vessels while tension is mounting on the political front...

would be something for the iranians to have as well to do something unexpected in the strait of Hormuz.


[edit on 13-12-2004 by Countermeasures]

I like the creativity in that last post you made with the "trojen horse" idea. That is what to expect in warfare, suprise and deception to gain the advantage. My uncle was captain of a Knox class Frigate in the 1970s, and he said that while he was charging around the Indian ocean looking for Soviets he strung lights to appear as a merchant ship which I found interesting. The Knox class had a single screw so it did appear, at least at first, to be configured like a merchant ship. Nowdays though, with the sonar signatures of each propeller recorded in the computers of every combattant of all major navies, not only would any major navy know it was a warship, but who the captain's family and friends were and who the lead sonarman was engaged to...

The only problem with the "trojen horse" is that is will be short lived in all likelyhood. The only way any surface warship (like Kirov) could hit a carrier would be if it is close to it at the outbreak of hostilities. The commander of the carrier is not stupid, and any threat to his ship and mission will be dealt with before major hostilities start, out of self defense. This was talked about in the navy at length during the cold war, and even Soviet Trawlers (intelligence ships) were considered armed for a first strike. Long ago I was subscribed to Proceedings, the U.S. Naval Institute magazine, and they had at least one major article on this subject. I wish I still got that magazine, it was very good.

Keeping it covert and making it non-suspicious is indeed the primary concern.

I suppose for (just example, i love my Taiwanese motherboard ) China could use third parties to acquire a known ship that has been frequently passing through the strait and have like a Greece front-office and a fillipino deckcrew or something....

To keep momentum, the close range missilelaunch against airfields, coastal defences and air defences, would have to be followed up IMMEDIATELY by a naval taskforce landing on the island and establish a beachhead. speed is at the utmost importance because the Taiwanese generals could overcome their initial chaotic moments at headquarters and the americans could get enough time to step in, something that would make the whole thing fail and could lead to grand escalation in a way that the whole world is afraid of....

i could imaging the one or two oiltankers modified not only to contain cruisemissiles, but also a fleet of fast landingsboats in the belly (yeah I have been watching too many James Bond movies) and a hollow space under the oiltanker to smuggle one or two submarines to defend the bridgehead against attacks from the sea.

For all this to succeed the majority of the SAM sites and landingstrips would have to be knocked out or damged by the cruisemissiles, so that more troops and material could be brought in quickly by airlift and also the chinese jetfighters would have hands more free to engage targets on the ground. However I expect the Taiwanese millitary to be sensitive enough to have year round non-stop large patrols of their modern aircrafts , so I expect you cannot take out their whole airfleet Pearl Harbour style and there would be a good deal of dogfiighting, but they would not have much free room to bomb away at the enemy infantery as they will kept busy by the chinese jetfighters...



[edit on 13-12-2004 by Countermeasures]

Originally posted by Kenshin
" Currently (2004) what is the largest military vessel, excluding aircraft carriers and support ships ... "

What's the biggest servicable russian SSBN?

last few comments were interesting a few years ago i read about a missile system that is hidden onboard a cargo container ship disquised as an ordinary container then when needed it pops up and launches its missilles. missile control is from another container after launch it folds back down to container so enemy is looking for military ship or sub you go on merry way and drop regular cargo and rearm. i think to answer question the biggest non carrier warship that will be fielded by us in few years will be new advanced destroyer class