This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Naval armour" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR(July 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Naval armor refers to the various protections schemes employed by warships. The first ironclad warship was created in 1859, and the pace of armour advancement accelerated quickly thereafter. The emergence of battleships around the turn of the 20th century saw ships become increasingly large and well armoured. Vast quantities of heavily armoured ships were used during the World Wars, and were crucial in the outcome. The emergence of guided missiles in the last part of the 20th century has greatly reduced the utility of armor, and most modern warships are now only lightly armored.
Naval armour consists of many different designs, depending on what the armour is meant to protect against. Sloped armour and belt armour are designed to protect against shellfire; torpedo belts, bulges, and bulkheads protect against underwater torpedoes or naval mines; and armoured decks protect against air dropped bombs and long-range shellfire.
The materials that make up naval armour have evolved over time, beginning with simply wood, then softer metals like lead or bronze, to harder metals such as iron, and finally steel and composites. Iron armour saw wide use in the 1860s and 1870s, but steel armor began to take over because it was stronger, and thus less could be used. The technology behind steel armour went from simple carbon steel plates, to increasingly complex arrangements with variable alloys. Case-hardened Harvey armor was the first major development, followed by chromium alloyed and specially hardened Krupp armour. Ducol steel came into use in the 1920s, and was widely used on World War II era ships. Futuristic armor designs include electric armour, which would use electric shielding to stop projectiles.
Naval armor refers to the various protections schemes employed by warships. The first ironclad warship was created in 1859, and the pace of armour advancement...
Krupp armour was a type of steel navalarmour used in the construction of capital ships starting shortly before the end of the nineteenth century. It...
Armour (Commonwealth English) or armor (American English; see spelling differences) is a covering used to protect an object, individual, or vehicle from...
Electric armour or electromagnetic armour is a type of reactive armour proposed for the protection of ships and armoured fighting vehicles from shaped...
as naval vessels such as battleships and cruisers. Sloping an armour plate makes it more difficult to penetrate by anti-tank weapons, such as armour-piercing...
Plastic armour (also known as plastic protection) was a type of vehicle armour originally developed for merchant ships by Edward Terrell of the British...
continual need for reliable protection with the increasing size in naval ordnance. Compound armour was a non-alloyed attempt to combine the benefits of two different...
be seriously damaged underwater not only by torpedoes, but also by heavy naval artillery shells that plunge into the ocean very close to the targeted ship...
Iron armour was a type of navalarmour used on warships and, to a limited degree, fortifications. The use of iron gave rise to the term ironclad as a...
typically in case of piracy. In warships, the All or Nothing technique on naval vessel armor is known for its use on dreadnought battleships. The concept...
explosive shells soon led to the introduction of iron, and later steel, navalarmour for the sides and decks of larger warships. The first ironclad warships...
Harvey armor was a type of steel naval armor developed in the early 1890s in which the front surfaces of the plates were case hardened. The method for...
Chatham Publishing. ISBN 1-86176-022-1. Campbell, John (1992). "Naval Armaments and Armour". In Gardiner, Robert (ed.). Steam, Steel and Shellfire: The Steam...
British naval circles that cruisers should displace battleships entirely. The battleship's main advantage was its 12-inch heavy guns, and heavier armour designed...
In theory this belt would absorb the explosions from torpedoes, or any naval artillery shells that struck below the waterline, and thus minimize internal...
flight deck is an aircraft carrier flight deck that incorporates substantial armour in its design. Comparison is often made between the carrier designs of the...
"Harvey" or "Harvey Smith", term for the V sign Harvey armor, a type of navalarmour Harvey F.C., a soccer team from Harvey, Illinois, USA Harvey mannequin...
or near vertical, belt armour which protects against missiles (shells) travelling horizontally, and horizontal deck armour, which protects against plunging...
Vernice "FlyGirl" Armour (born 1973) is a former United States Marine Corps officer who was the first African-American female naval aviator in the Marine...
Motherwell. Applications have included warship hull construction and light armouring, road bridges, and pressure vessels including locomotive steam boilers...
Armour with two or more plates spaced a distance apart falls under the category of spaced armour. Spaced armour can be sloped or unsloped. When sloped...
Global Information