Summary
Ships: weapons
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Extract
Fire from the sea.
The post-1990 series of 'out-of-area' operations has changed the leading navies' main emphasis from 'blue water' convoy protection to littoral operations using conventional ordnance in support of ground forces. At long ranges, carrier-borne attack aircraft can now be augmented by conventionally armed cruise missiles launched from ships and submarines. The range gap between traditional naval gunfire and the cruise missile is meanwhile being filled by smaller missiles and barrel/tube-launched guided projectiles.
The leading force in the move from open ocean to littoral thinking is (unsurprisingly) the US Navy, which in 2001 abandoned its projected Zumwalt-class DD-21 destroyer concept in favour of the DD(X), designed to provide advanced land attack c...See the full content of this document
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