Study Guide 10 - Ships and Aircraft

Ships

• Ships can be divided into 2 major groups:
• Combatants - designed primarily to engage in combat with enemy forces
• Auxiliaries - designed primarily to perform support related functions
• The different types of ships used by the US Navy include:
• Aircraft Carriers - Designed for the purpose of conducting combat operations by aircraft.
• Cruisers - Used in antiair, antisurface, and antisubmarine missions. These ships are a major offensive power able to hit land or sea targets at substantial distances.
• Destroyers - Like Cruisers these ships have a wide array of combat capability. Destroyers are used for a variety of purposes and are seen as the "workhorses" of the fleet.
• Frigates - Used primarily as escorts
• Submarines - Multi-purpose vessels which primarily conduct subsurface missions
• Patrol - Smaller coastal vessels used primarily for special warfare and and coastal interdiction missions. 
• Mine-Warfare - Used to detect and remove or destroy mines.
• Amphibious Warfare - As its name suggests, these ships work where sea and land meet.
• Underway-Replenishment - Ships used primarily to replenish the supplies and fuel of other ships.
• Fleet Support - Support type ships which provide other functions not covered by UNREPs such as salvaging, damage, repair and towing.
• Service Craft - Ships used to repair other ships. These come in a variety of sizes in order to accommodate all the different sizes of ships.
• Ships are identified with a name and designation (a letter number combination). A designation is made up from the ships classification (primary mission type) and construction sequence. Ships are also further identified by Classes (the overall design of a group of ships).
• for example: the USS Theodore Roosevelt has the designation "CVN 71". It is a Multipurpose Aircraft Carrier (nuclear propulsion) and is the 71st aircraft carrier authorized for construction. It is a Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier.
• While names may be recycled, designations are not. While names can be (and often are) recycled, no 2 ships ever share the same name at a time while commissioned.

Aircraft

• Aircraft can also be split in the 2 major groups, instead based wing type:
• Fixed Wing - uses wings which are directly attached to the fuselage.
• Rotary Wing - uses a rotor (wings that rotate)
• Aircraft are assigned a letter to to signify their primary mission type:
• A - Attack
• C - Cargo
• E - Electronic Warfare
• F - Fighter
• H - Rescue (Help)
• M - Multi-Purpose/Multi-role
• N - Special Test, Permanent
• P - Patrol
• R - Reconnaissance
• S - Antisubmarine Warfare
• T - Trainer
• U - Utility
• V - VIP Transport
• X - Experimental
• Aircraft (like ships) have names and are given a designation based on mission type and design number
• for example: "C-2" would stand for the second model (design) for a Cargo Type aircraft (Named "Greyhound")