Shipbucket

In researching current ship classes, I came across something interesting....American ships, and some foriegn vessels, seem to be built with speed intentionally built in (30-32 knots designed speed seems fairly standard for USN designs) while European designs seem to not be as concerned (28 knots or somewhere around there.) Not a great difference, and I am sure some ships designed for 28 knots can really do 30+, but wouldn't you want your warships to at least have a sprint speed as high as possible?

I do recall reading an argument had in New Zealand about this, they wanted their ANZACs slower so they intentionally couldn't keep pace with the USN...which made no sense to me because fleets rarely travel at high speed for extended periods of time. Maybe I am reading too much into one number in a list of technical descriptions? Or are there valid, strategic reasons for the different philosophies there?

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World's Best Okayest Author and Artist

When the USN designs destroyer and such they have one driving design parameter, it must be able to keep up with the carrier at all times.
Since the European navies doesn't have to do this they usually choose to sacrifice a few knots in favour of other things, usually cost.

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Source Materiel is always welcome.

That makes a lot of sense. And with weapons like ASROC, exocet, and the like, having the extra five or so knots for a closing burst of speed isn't so critical.

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World's Best Okayest Author and Artist