Gas turbines share with internal combustion piston engines the great virtues of quick starting and stopping as well as relatively simple operation. The disadvantage is the high cost, which limits such power to a few valuable ships built by the wealthiest powers-in most cases, the United States. The Soviet Union and France followed with more limited programs in the 1970s and ’80s.įor a surface ship, the advantage of nuclear power is effectively infinite range at high speed. In the 1950s the United States also developed nuclear power plants for surface ships, subsequently installing them aboard aircraft carriers and their escorts. Other navies followed suit, so that within 20 years Britain, the Soviet Union, France, and China all operated nuclear submarines. Nuclear power was proposed for ships, particularly submarines, in 1945, and by 1955 the United States had a nuclear submarine, USS Nautilus, in service. In addition, the gas turbine, a turbine in which the combustion of fuel generates a stream of gases that turns the rotor, has become available for ship propulsion. But steam propulsion reached its ultimate development with the use of the energy released by nuclear fission to heat the boilers of steam turbines. The diesel engine, adapted to warships even before World War II, has remained in use in the navies of the world, as have steam turbines. The main defense now is to provide the fleet with its own guided missiles capable of destroying either the missile or its launching platform.
This weapon, which can be mounted onto the smallest surface vessels as well as aircraft and submarines, is especially dangerous to aircraft carriers because it can be launched outside antiaircraft range and, being unmanned, cannot be distracted easily by defensive fire. Since the war, the development of jet aircraft and nuclear-powered ship propulsion has magnified the range and speed of operations, but it has not altered the central role of the carrier.Īt the same time, though, a new equalizer has been developed: the antiship guided missile. SpaceNext50 Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space!īy the middle of World War II, carrier-borne aircraft become so effective that the aircraft carrier was clearly replacing the battleship as the core of the modern navy.Learn about the major environmental problems facing our planet and what can be done about them! Saving Earth Britannica Presents Earth’s To-Do List for the 21st Century.Britannica Beyond We’ve created a new place where questions are at the center of learning.100 Women Britannica celebrates the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, highlighting suffragists and history-making politicians.
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