A guided missile destroyer is a destroyer designed to launch guided missiles. Many are also equipped to carry out anti-submarine, anti-air, and anti-surface operations. The NATO standard designation for these vessels is DDG. Nations vary in their use of destroyer D designation their hull pennant numbering, either prefixing, or dropping it altogether. The U.S. Navy has adopted the classification DDG in the US hull classification symbol.
In addition to the guns that destroyers have, a guided missile destroyer is usually equipped with two large missile magazines which store the missiles for the ship, usually in Vertical Launch Cells. Some guided missile destroyers contain powerful weapon system radars, like the United States’ Aegis combat system, and may be adopted for use in an anti-missile role or a ballistic missile defense role. This is especially true of navies that no longer operate cruisers, as other vessels must be adopted to fill in the gap.
Read more about Guided Missile Destroyer: Former Guided Missile Destroyer Classes
Famous quotes containing the words guided missile, guided, missile and/or destroyer:
“The guided missiles,
The black-and-white angels follow each quirk and jink of
The evasive sheep, play grandmother’s-steps behind them,
Freeze to the ground, or leap to head off a straggler”
—Cecil Day Lewis (1904–1972)
“Sometimes, when I compare myself with other men, it seems as if I were more favored by the gods than they, beyond any deserts that I am conscious of; as if I had a warrant and surety at their hands which my fellows have not, and were especially guided and guarded. I do not flatter myself, but if it be possible they flatter me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“... the truth is the hardest missile one can be pelted with.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“There is a concept that is the corrupter and destroyer of all others. I speak not of Evil, whose limited empire is that of ethics; I speak of the infinite.”
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986)