Marine Nationale (1891-1896), Friant, Bugeaud, Chasseloup-Laubat The Friant class were three protected cruisers (Friant, Bugeaud, and Chasseloup-Laubat), ordered as part of a naval construction program targeting Italy and Germany to remedy a French chronic deficiency in cruisers revealed in training by the 1880s. The Friant-class were designed as fleet scouts for the French colonial empire. … Read more
Germany (Planned 1943): None commissioned, 174 cancelled 24 July 1943 The Type VII/42 capitalized on the deep-diving VIIC/41 while being an attempt to defeat sonar by coating the outer hull with rubber anechoic tiles. Tests had been ongoing since 1941, on U-67 until the project was abandoned. It was decided to enable these submarines to … Read more
Russian Empire/Soviet Navy 1910-1941 From 1910 the “Novik class” was a reaction to the results of the Russo-Japanese war, which caused a great train of reforms in the Navy, generating a new generation of large fleet destroyers. The Novik was a trailblazer leapfrogging current destroyer designs, made for “active minelaying” and protect lines of communications … Read more
Royal Navy – Emergency Fleet Destroyer (1942-43): U class: Ulster, Ulysses, Undaunted, Undine, Urania, Urchin, Ursa, Hardy* V class: Valentine, Venus, Verulam, Vigilant, virago, Viwen, Volage, Kempenfelt* The U and V class were sixteen destroyers of the RN, launched in 1943–1944 for the 7th and 8th Emergency Flotilla. They acted as fleet and convoy escorts … Read more
Russian Imperial navy, 183 (300 until 1923*) built 1915-1917. The Grigorovich M-5 (Or Shchetinin M-5) was the best Russian World War I seaplane by far. It led to a mass production with multiple variants, for a lineage that lived on until the late 1920s, and later lost to Beriev. The Grigorovich M9, which followed two … Read more
Soviet Navy Series I (D-1 to D-6): Dekabrist, Narodovolyets, Krasnovgardeyets, Spartakovets, Revolutsyoner, Yakobinets The Series I, also known as the “Dekabrist” class were the first submersibles designed and built for Soviet Navy after Revolution of 1917. They were authorized in the Soviet Naval Shipbuilding Program of 1926, influencved by Italians designs such as the Balilla, … Read more
Medium Submersibles: 1929-33: Argonauta, Fisalia, Jalea, Jantina, Medusa, Salpa, Serpente The Argonauta class were the first sub-class of the “600 tonnes Series” considered either “medium” in Western publications and “coastal” in Italian ones. This large standardization effort (this first class comprised seven vessels, a record), built for the Regia Marina from 1929 to 1933 and … Read more
1958-2000s: 95 destroyers converted to FRAM standards. The Gearing class destroyers were converted into the FRAM I and/or FRAM II ASW variants in the cold war, all but three of the 98 commissioned in WW2, unlike the previous Allen M. Sumner, and Fletcher DDE and FRAM I that had a shorter carrer. These conversions proved … Read more
Leander (Type 12I) class Frigate (1965-1995): HMNZS Waikato, Canterbury, Wellington, Southland Waitangi Day ! For this 6 February 2025, here is a special about cold war New Zealand Frigates, the Waikato class, specifically ordered in Britain, two standard Leander Batch 2 and two “broad beam” Leander, widely considered the best British mid-cold war frigates. In … Read more
Ottoman Navy: Avnillah, Muin-i-Zafer (1868-70), service until 1932. The Avnillah class were two casemate ironclad of the Ottoman Navy, built as part of a large naval program in 1861. Avnillah (also spelled Avnih Illâh in many publications) and Muin-i Zafer were built in Britain in 1868-1870 with four 228 mm (9 in) guns as central … Read more
