Category:Cruiser

A cruiser is a fast, independent warship. Traditionally, cruisers were the smallest warships capable of independent actions. Light, Heavy, and Battlecruisers fall in here, and tends to be variations in tonnage in the traditional role.

The battlecruiser (often abbreviated as BC) was a warship type used in first and second rate national navies. It was the smallest ship class that was designated as a capital ship. Battlecruisers were designed to straddle the line between medium combatants and heavier combatants, being both fast and well armed and armored. Their design featured some internal compartmentalization and redundancy to help protect against battle damage, but not as much as battleships and dreadnaughts.

Heavy cruisers (often abbreviated to CA for "Cruiser, Armored") were a medium combatant. Heavy cruisers were designed for longer term independent action as a system picket, heavy commerce protection unit, and as a screening unit for capital ships.

Light cruisers (often abbreviated to CL) were similar in function to the destroyer. Whereas destroyers typically carried only a few armament with not as deep of a magazine for weapons, light cruisers typically managed to cram in bigger and more numerous weapons and deeper magazine wells. It was most commonly used for reconnaissance, commerce protection, and commerce raiding.