Surf Wiki
Save to docs
general/ship-types

From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Lead ship

First of a series or class of ships

First of a series or class of ships

Right: , lead ship of the

The lead ship, name ship, or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships that are all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable to naval ships and large civilian vessels.

Large ships are very complex and may take five to ten years to build. Improvements based on experience with building and operating the lead ship are likely to be incorporated into the design or construction of later ships in the class, so it is rare to have vessels that are identical.

The second and later ships are often started before the first one is completed, launched and tested. Nevertheless, building copies is still more efficient and cost effective than building prototypes, and the lead ship will usually be followed by copies with some improvements rather than radically different versions. The improvements will sometimes be retrofitted to the lead ship. Occasionally, the lead ship will be launched and commissioned for shakedown testing before following ships are completed, making the lead ship a combination of template and prototype, rather than expending resources on a prototype that will never see actual use.

Naming

Ship classes are typically named in one of two ways; echoing the name of the lead ship, such as the s, whose lead ship was , and the , whose lead ship was , or defining a theme by which vessels in the class are named, as in the Royal Navy's s, named after tribes of the world, such as . If a ship class is produced for another navy, the first active unit will become the lead ship for that navy; for example, the s are known as the in Royal Australian Navy service.

References

References

  1. The Last Epic Naval Battle: Voices from Leyte Gulf, by David Sears, p. 27, Organization and ships
  2. [https://web.archive.org/web/20120518004210/http://www.public.navy.mil/surfor/Pages/USNavyPacificFleetShipsbyClass.aspx#.WnaA2XxG1xA US Navy, Commander, Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet]
  3. [https://thaimilitaryandasianregion.wordpress.com/2015/12/24/builder-of-us-navys-new-class-aircraft-carrier-looks-towards-lead-ships-upcoming-trials/ Builder of US Navy's new class aircraft carrier looks towards lead ship's upcoming trials]
  4. [https://sgp.fas.org/crs/weapons/RS22478.pdf Navy Ship Names: Background for Congress, Ronald O'Rourke, Specialist in Naval Affairs, May 12, 2017]
Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

ship-types
Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Lead ship — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report