Cruiser

The cruiser today

In the modern military terminology, a cruiser (code NATO DC , CG , missile launcher, or CGN , with nuclear propulsion) is large a building of combat which has the systems of weapons enabling him to intervene in all the principal fields of fight of the combat at sea: anti-submarine Fight, anti-ship fight, anti-aircraft fight, the attack of terrestrial objectives. They are of Tonnage more important than the Destroyer S and the frigate S, more specialized in fields of fight.

They are generally equipped with cruise missiles (tackles terrestrial objectives), anti-ship missiles, anti-aircraft missiles and embark helicopters with anti-submarine vocation or anti-ship.

Currently, only the US Navy and the Russian Marine have cruisers. The French national marine also has the Jeanne d' Arc , a “cruiser helicopter carrier”; however it does not act more than one ship of combat, but of a building of instruction intended for the young graduate officers of the naval college. The the United States integrate their cruisers in the air and sea groups English ( CVBG : Carrier Vessel Battle Group ) made up around their aircraft carriers with nuclear propulsion, by rather specializing them in a role of protection anti-aircraft and anti-missile, for which them Système of combat Aegis is particularly intended.

History

The term “cruiser” is an invention of the middle of the 19th century. During the age of the veil, the frigate S were small ships slightly armed, with a battery on only one bridge, but able to carry out long cruisings. They were supposed to avoid engagement with large enemy forces thanks to their high speed with the ship of the lines.

The appearance of the Armoured S, with their armament them also on only one bridge, which of this fact were often indicated by the term of armoured frigates, caused the change of those in the cruising ships, name which was quickly shortened in the cruiser. During many years, they constituted the intermediate building between the battleship and the Torpilleur. He thus assumed the missions formerly reserved for old the frigate S and corvette S, namely:

the War of race besides whose stake was the navigation of trade, where it could act as attack at the time of raids, or in defense by escorting convoys, this type of operation will take often the name of war of cruisers.
the lighting and connections of the fleet, when it was integrated in the squadrons of line.
the maintenance of the presence in the remote colonies where it was often used as principal combat and symbol building of sovereignty.

They thus filled one of the gaps of the Cuirassé S, which, although without rival from the point of view of the armament and protection, were not very able to be sent far from their base, in particular because of their enormous consumption of coal.

This great diversity of task, associated with the technological change of the end of the 19th century, rather quickly caused a specialization of the cruisers.

Armoured cruisers

In 1875, appeared the British Shannon , which was the first representative of the armoured cruisers , those combined a rather powerful armament with generally two or four principal parts of a gauge of 203 or 254 mm and a dozen secondary parts often of 152 Misters a protection made up of an armoured belt average thickness, enabled him to undergo only the shooting of parts equivalent to those which it embarked. It could moreover slip by at a speed slightly higher than the battleships of the time, thus escaping their hunting. They could be seen like battleships of second rank, often intended to form the squadrons overseas.

Protected cruisers

In lower part of them, appeared towards 1880, another lighter standard, the cruiser protected , whose protection was consisted an armor-plated bridge covering the boilers and the steam engines, as well as the ammunition stores. They were armed with a dozen guns of average gauge, often of the 152 Misters Their main missions were the recognition and the war of race.

Auxiliary cruisers

Before the end of the century, appeared also the practice to arm with the trading vessels for the war of race, or the protection of the Convoi S. These buildings were called auxiliary cruisers , and although less armed and protected that the conventional cruisers, they took a considerable share in these missions, in particular during the two world wars.

The converted ships were often Paquebot S, selected for their high speed, which one equipped with parts of average gauge allowing them to dissuade the enemy cruisers to be caught some with the convoy, not by the risk of direct destruction but especially by the fear of serious damages, very far from a friendly base. Another alternative, often named raider , consisted of the conversion of a cargo liner whose armament was then dissimulated, enabling him to act with the effect of surprise. This technique was employed especially by the Germany, with sometimes a very great success, as in the business of the Kormoran in 1941.

The cruisers of battle

Parallel to the appearance of the dreadnought for the battleships, the theories of the British admiral John Arbuthnot Fisher caused the appearance of a new type of cruiser. It concentrated all its artillery in the maximum gauge to be able to destroy its adversaries at the longest possible distance. Protection was not supposed to protect the building against an equivalent artillery, but only against intermediate parts of gauges. The philosophy of this reform of Fisher holds in one of its declarations, speed is protection (speed is protection). These new cruisers of battle will be thus ships very fast, approximately five nodes moreover than the battleships of the time, and armed with an equivalent artillery but on the other hand unable to support the fire of those in a prolonged way. These doctrines will appear rather effective first of all, at the time, for example, of the engagement of the Falklands, where the cruisers of battle show that they are predatory natural growing old armoured cruisers, but it will show its limits during engagements of greatter importance against dreadnoughts as with the Bataille of Jutland. On this occasion, the British cruisers will undergo a true hecatomb vis-a-vis the fleet of German line. The appearance of the fast battleships after war will end up giving the blow of thanks to the concept of cruiser of battle.

Light cruisers and heavy cruisers

Towards 1895, the protected cruisers started to be supplanted by a new type of ship profiting from the contribution of new technologies, in particular with the appearance of the turbines for the propulsion which gave them quite higher speeds. The armament profited, him of the generalization of the guns with fast shooting and the shielding, thanks to the progress of the metallurgy, the addition of a belt armoured in addition to the bridge of protection. Good examples of this new type, the light cruisers were the British of the class County , or German of the '' Dresden ''.

During the war an increase in dimensions and offensive power, made emerge a new category, the heavy cruiser , whose first representatives were the British of the class Hawkins , armed of guns of 203 mm. However the distinction between the two was really codified only at the time of the Traité of Washington, where the gauge of artillery of the light cruisers was limited to 155 mm and that of heavy with 203 mm, tonnage not having to him to exceed 10 000 T for the two types. These limits were crossed only with the approach of the Second world war, with the appearance of the German battleships of pocket of the class '' Deutschland '' (which in spite of their name, because of their main mission, the attack of the enemy trade, should be regarded as cruisers) and in the Pacific Ocean, by the powerful Japanese heavy cruisers of the classes Chokai or Mogami . In same time, the appearance of the major threat consisted the bombers, made specialize certain light cruisers. To fight this threat, it offered of a strong battery of pieces of artillery called to dual employment (against surface and anti-aircraft). The precursors were again the British with the class Dido armed by eight, then ten, guns of 133 mm to great rise and provided with a fire control system with a Radar.

The heavy cruisers, them, knew their apogee at the end of the Second world war with the American class Alaska , armed with nine guns of 305 mm and moving 27 000 ton S.

The era of the missile

The prevalence of the air danger and the emergence of a new weapon to fight against this one, the anti-aircraft missile, caused after the Second world war, a deep change in the construction of the cruisers, the principal artillery quickly lost importance with the profit of the means of detection and launching of these new weapons and a strong anti-aircraft battery of artillery.

The eclipse of the battleships, like principal combat buildings of surface, although largely with the profit of the Aircraft carrier, obliged despite everything the cruisers to take again part of the missions of those, in particular when the long-range missiles anti-ship became ripe. Nations like the Soviet Union, based a good part of their naval power on large cruisers with strong offensive vocation, of which a part was specialized in the fight against the Sous-marin S and another in the attack of the air and sea groups.

List cruisers by country

France
the United Kingdom
the USA
the USSR and Russia
Japan
Italy
Germany

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