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[Martin (Admin)]

Afternoon all!
 Welcome to 2009!

Do ship still have belt armor these days?
If not, when was it deemed unnecessary?
What is armored on a modern ship and how?

[andyn]

Ships do not have armour belts anymore, and I quote "There is reason why modern warships do not carry armor belts. It is because it's pointless".

They have kevlar reinforced parts on key areas of the ship, ranging in thickness from 2cm to 2 inches.

Good reading on the subject
http://groups.google.com/group/sci.military.naval/browse_thread/thread/bde09a6bca33554b/8b065dcd2a5dad82?lnk=st&q=#8b065dcd2a5dad82

[snowwolflair]

If modern warships get hit armoured or not all the electronics goes out of calibration and they are useless for some hours after that.

[gingyer]

warhships now are wafer thin
the Idea is a missile would pass right thru it with out detonating


big bri took this picture of HMS Defender recently so he can see the hull thickness
it is only about an inch thick

[brianc]

Sorry Gingyer.
Don`t want to critisize mate but,the hull of the Defender goes from.Wait for it..............22mm at the keel to 6mm towards the deck edge!!!!!!!
Yes mate you did read that right ...22mm to 6mm. Unbelievable eh?

[gingyer]

Hi Brian
I knew you had the info

[fooman2008]

I was stationed aboard several different U.S. Navy destroyers in the 80's (one a Spruance class) I know that as they overhauled them they were all scheduled to be 'armored' (1" of aluminum on the entire superstructure to the bridge level).  We had previously figured that one good hit from an ASM (like a Harpoon) and it would hit something explosive and we would go up like a firecracker.
Foo

[Jonty]

  One wonders if there is scope for an update of the "plastic armour" used to great effect on both merchant and naval ships in World War II. It was a simple confection of tar and gravel chippings of exactly the right size and hardness. A good account of the development of this in Gerald Pawle's book about the DMWD, the fabled 'wheezers and dodgers', inventors of the Great Panjandrum and other (more successful) strange weapons.
  Or how about something like the reactive armour used on modern tanks?

[andyn]

Chobham armour on a ship would cost more than building an escalator between here and Pluto

[fooman2008]

besides which what would we do with all the recycled soda cans the Navy has?  A lot of combatant ships have Kevlar on the bridge and CIC but the simple truth is that you whack a smaller ship with 800 pounds of torpex traveling at 500+ knots in an ASM there it just going to be a big flash and a hole in the water where it was!  The modern aircraft carrier is classed as having 'armored' deck due to the high tensile strength they use for the decks themselves, but the reality is that it takes tonnage to soak up a hit, and crews to fight the fires.  I personally believe that today's modern ships are so under-crewed that if they take a big hit they couldn't fight the damage and would probably be forced to abandon ship.  Note reduced crews for DDG-1000, Gerald Ford class CVN's, most modern British warships.
Foo