Next to steam (which old wind jamming navy men welcomed like a mouse in the morning oatmeal) the biggest thing that has happened to fighting-ship design is the airplane. Before the epochal crippling of the Bismarck by aerial torpedo, and the crashing success of unsupported aircraft in sinking the Prince of Wales and Repulse, designers of battlewagons and smaller craft had given only half an eye to defense against the new weapon on the seas. Those demonstrations ended all arguments, basically altered ship design.
Today the U.S. Navy, busy on the biggest shipbuilding...
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