Frigates are also the smallest warship capable of running escort missions for convoys (or at least they were).... And surface ship size (from smallest to largest) Gunboat --->Minesweeper -->Corvette -->Frigate -->Destroyer -->Battleship -->Aircraft Carrier.

In the game "Pirates!" frigates were my favourite ships.

That line has been blurred by advances in technology Normally it was defined by weight and weapons but there are some frigates that reveal some destroyers in capabilities With the US, Frigate were escorts/ ASW while for smaller navies, frigates are their capital ships Every navy has their own definition of what frigate does but general speaking, destroyers and cruisers are the ships that generally considered by all principal or major surface combatants

US "destroyer" are classified as such as to distinguish them from the Ticonderoga cruisers that were the most modern fleet system at the time the AB class came along. Both the AB and T are essentially the same displacement and perform the same fleet roles. But in politics, "cruisers" are perceived as more expensive, so they were called destroyers. In reality, AB's are cruisers.

This definition is good but old. More flexible roles and goals are required. Ship swarms, with masked capabilities, and targets are more likely to be successful.

Thank you for this video. Bucharest, Roumanie

The F-221 Hessen shown in the video is actually a destroyer. Due to the general attitude of the Germans towards the war, we named the destroyer Frigate. The Sachsen-class is able to fulfill operational orders in the context of naval warfare on its own without further support, the ships are de facto destroyers despite their official classification as frigates, although current destroyers such as the Arleigh Burke class of the US Navy or the Daring class of the British Royal Navy has a significantly larger number of long-range anti-aircraft missiles. The three ships of the class replaced the Lütjens-class destroyers, which were decommissioned between 1998 and 2003, in a ratio of 1:1.

Wait.. why's the audio literally same as another video "What is the difference between Frigate vs Destroyer" from Military TV 2 years ago

Basically a frigate is a smaller Destroyer with less capabilities and less cost to build

in modern day, there's absolutely no difference except the tonnage. Even there is not standard tonnage rule...but observing around, it seems Frigates are around 3000-6900 tons...while Destroyers are around 7000-12000 tons. Heaviest Frigates seems to be the FREMM, while the Lightest Destroyers seem to be the Hobart Class and Horizon Class. Further in terms of armaments. ...India's new Frigate and Destroyers ...the Nilgiri Class and Vishakapatnam Class have identical radars and weapons...except Nilgiri being slightly smaller will carry 8 less Anti ship missiles.

There's seems to be so much overlap and redundancies between Ticonderoga and Burke class. They have identical Missile/ASW/Radar capabilities and both carry helicopters. It seems like the new Frigate coming out sans full Aegis system is like a "Diet Burke" - I imagine this will phase out the LCS ships.

Frigates are smaller, generally don't have ballistic missile defense(some do though) and generally have better range. They do better hunting down submarines do to their faster movement where destroyers and cruisers are meant to protect the fleet from air attack and also submarines that get by the frigates.

in the Royal Navy the distinction is clear, and mostly defined by role. Destroyers are anti air platforms, due to their larger space to house air defence systems, and also do other generic tasks when needed (which is often, the Royal Navy is smol), frigates are anti sub platforms which are larger than most nations frigates as they have to also do general patrolling, help out with anti air in a task group or to defend themselves, anti piracy etc.

Assuming the reporting is correct, the modified Type 26 Frigate Canada will be building at full load will be 9400 tons.

The changes to frigates and destroyers over the last 80 years sees the majority in the light cruiser class (though some are not as fast). The US would probably find it cheaper to mass produce the Arleigh Burke hull to cover both their requirements (standardisation, easier crew training, maintenance) rather than yet another expensive "jack of all trades"/" master of none" (the current contender for the new Australian frigate appears to be forever changing).

Once upon a time their was a clear difference between ships every agreed was a Frigate and ships everybody agreed was a Destroyer. Recently some of the Europeans started calling all their large surface combatants Frigates. It appears the term Destroyer has simply fallen out of favour with some navies. This has nothing what so ever to do with historical definitions. At the same time the classifications "Cruiser" and "Battleship" have also fallen out of favour. For example the US Navy Burke class destroyers are so large, they would be called "Battle Cruisers" if you were to use the old definitions based on speed and tonnage from WW2. The fact that you have a Destroyer like Zumwalt which is 16,000 tones, shows how much the old definitions are today null and void. Another factor which has increased the confusion is that modern combat ships are more multirole than ever before. There is no such thing as a purpose built anything anymore. All Ships have to perform anti-air, anti-ship, anti-Submarine missions. This is more than anything else behind the fact that today's ships are bigger and more expensive than ever before. This has destroyed the last thing that used to be a point of difference which was the combat role. The Royal Australian Navy's proposed new Hunter class Frigate, will be a 10,000 ton Frigate. Looks like being three thousand tones bigger than the RAN's Hobart class Destroyer. The Hunter Class was Initially proposed as an anti submarine warfare vessel, but they now want it to match the Hobart class Destroyer, in the air defense role, but they still are going to call it a Frigate. Why because the 3,500 tone Anzac class that it will replace was called a Frigate. So now we have a Navy using the definition of the ship a vessel will replace to determine the definition of a new class of warship. The strange games people play.

The next class of German frigates, the F-126, will be over 10k t of displacement and a length of 166m. That's bigger than almost any destroyer.

@Military-TV is this your video? because it sounds like it was yours from 3 years ago.

"For example the US describes a 9000 ton Burke class as a destroyer, Iran may call a 95m Mouch-class ship a destroyer." Thanks. That really gave me a good picture! While I guess the 9000 ton Burke class might be the bigger ship, mostly because everything is always bigger in the US, the random names Mouch-class(?) and Burke class and the change from tons to meters left me clueless.

The primary differece between a "Frigate" and a "Destroyer", outside of the 4 major navies (US/UK/JMSDF/PLA-N) is....and this is no joke....the budgetary politics. In most democracies, you can get the left-wing opposition to fund a "Frigate", but not a "Destroyer". For example, take the Spanish Navy, their F100-class frigate are actually "Destroyers", but their government does not want to label them "Destroyers" for purely political reasons, so they're called "Destroyer".

The US Navy didn't have the class "Frigate" from the end of the "Age of Sail" (around the Civil War) all the way until the 1970's when the USN underwent a restructuring and reclassification. The USN had "Destroyer Escorts" (DE), Destroyers (DD/DDG), and "Destroyer Leaders" (DDL). When the USN reclassified, DE's became "Frigates"; the DE's role was to be "cheaper," more numerous, and tasked with "Escort." The DD/DDG's role was in "Fleet Protection" as well as "Escort" which meant they had anti-submarine and then anti-air as their main focus. The DDL's became "Cruisers" and their goal was "Command and Control" as well as "Fleet Protection"; they were larger because they had CnC requirements and, because they were larger and more complicated, they were also fewer in number. The older "Cruiser" designation that revolved around gun caliber ("Light Cruisers" armed with 6" guns/"Heavy Cruisers" armed with 8" batteries) was dropped as the age of the "Big Gun Cruisers" came to an end.

Destroyer comes from Villaamil’s Destructor. It was a ship designed to counter TB boats specifically.

defining the two classes has become impossible, today - something to do with the defining of reality being politicized by those in power. some like to classify destroyers as being higher in tonnage and armament. this is short-sighted, in lieu of WWII. perhaps, the trend was set there. but, history has it, that the frigate was the ship below the 'ship of the line' e.g. HMS Victory (a ship of the line) and USS Constitution (a true frigate) - the former being a 'battleship' - before the class was ever invented. the latter being an example of a heavily-armed warship, that was fast - and used by pirates...i.e. raiders. the destroyer came about, as a way to attack capital warships, then submarines, and finally, air-attack...just by purpose alone. it also served as escort. it was perhaps a 'stamp' on a class of warship that was 'meaner' than the frigate. today's concept of a destroyer is muddled - there's not enough emphasis on surface-warfare. perhaps land-attack - but not surface-to-surface warfare. the USN has 'heavy-frigates'; the Ticonderoga class, and Arleigh Burke class. they're classified by the USN as 'cruiser' and 'destroyer' respectively, but their roles, and hull-design considerations indicate more 'Heavy Frigate'...or 'Super Frigate' for that matter. you've heard the term 'Super Battleship?'...IJN Yamato and Musashi. Russia, on the other hand didn't muddle the definitions. When they classed the Kirov class as 'cruiser' that's exactly what it is (for) - a heavy & potent surface combatant with tonnage, and ability to withstand a beating. Same thing with 'destroyers' - the Sovremenny class - a mean, light surface combatant, articulated for that primary purpose.

Thank you, now add in cruisers too. Even though there aren't many left.

Not mentioned but conspicuous by it's absence is the description for frigates being the designated "meat shield" for larger vessels or the whole fleet.

Nice

In Nelson’s day, was the Frigate described as bigger than anything faster & faster than anything bigger 🤔

More space, fewer guns, fewer boilers, and fewer props on Frigate vs. an Adams Class Destroyer. Berthing was better on a Frigate to me, but I enjoyed serving on a destroyer more.

well Germany is in that case diffrent. Our Frigates actually would be considered being Destroyer class vessels but since the word "Destroyer" in german "Zerstörer" was a very popular word being used by the Nazi in WW2, Germany decided to call our Destroyer class vessels Frigates.

Simple. A destroyer is the smallest ship that’s designed with a primary focus of escorting the carrier battle group. A frigate is a small, fast ship designed largely for convoy escort. That lends itself to independent operations in less congested environments, and some operations with carriers. Though it has less magazine depth and endurance than larger destroyer cousins.

The frigate class is far older I believe. And cooler.

Whatever happen to the corvette class of warships?

Generally today we would say Frigates would be used to protect commercial shipping and patrols closer to the coast. Destroyers are generally used to protect Battle Carrier Groups from air & subs. I really emphasise "generally" because all Navies are different.

What about the Type 26 that is all but a Destroyer why do we in the UK call that a frigate

The terms are elastic and based on national practice; there are no global accepted terms.

To make the confusion complete, at 6:27 you are showing a K130 corvette rather than a frigate. 😊

Top..top

There's no legal definition, for example Danish Navy Iver Huifeldt class Frigate is 140 meters long, 6600 tons, larger and carry more weapon than most destroyer, yet it's a "FRIGATE" Meanwhile Iran categorize small 1500 tons Mowj Class as "DESTROYER" even though that ship smaller than most corvette 😂

💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰 Semper Fi

A lot of the definition is dependent on the country of origin and its naval history. In the British sense frigates and corvettes were developed in WW2 primarily as convoy escorts for the Atlantic and therefore could be slower and have less surface firepower than a destroyer. In a similar vein the US developed what they initially called the Destroyer escort, what would now be termed a frigate, for a similar anti submarine and escort role though the Pacific campaign wasn't nearly so heavily focused on merchant protection.

You have this backwards. In my naval experience a Frigate was any fighting ship 20,000 ton and lower where the quarterdeck is dropped down from the main deck where a destroyer is somewhat more varied definition but the ship quarterdeck is in the same line as the main deck and bigger. My ships, the quarterdeck was a HE 325 lb 6 tube mortar in a covered well or a helipad. Littoral work, ASW, convoy defence. With modern tech both designs are obsolete or soon to be.

When we had visiting Navy pers. I used to call them boats. They hated that.

The difference is which navy owns it. The UK type 22 destroyer became a frigate after it was sold to România

I actually thought destroyers were designed solely for anti-submarine and are smaller than frigates. Looks like I learned something new.

1:02 the formidable class frigate my most fav ship

You forgot that in the age of sail many navies including the British Royal Navy, the French navy, the Spanish, and most navies from colonies of those great powers defined a frigate as a ship with 3 masts and a single gun deck (not counting the quarterdeck and forecastle which were usually armed), so a ship armed with twenty guns all 9 pounders for a 90lb broadside would be a frigate as would a Razee (a ship that was once a 2-3 deck ship of the line but had the upper decks removed, leaving you with something similar to the USA's heavy frigates active around the time of the war of 1812 like Constitution) which may be rated as a 44 gun ship but have 50+ guns, in some cases mostly 32 pounder guns with maybe a few 64 pounder carronades as well, so have a broadside of over 800 pounds, and of course the ships originally built as or like (as with the 6 US frigates) ships of the line of battle would have had much thicker hulls.

wow, i saw my country ship 🇲🇾, 0:05.

To put it in football terms Frigates are like your running backs and Destroyers are like your offensive line

Huge grey area, however, my understanding is that a destroyer is more offense oriented. While a frigate is more defense oriented.

First claim that frigate became cruiser and then claim frigate is smaller than destroyer. Dude need to have brain check

We in Germany have the Sachsen-Class frigate. In NATO it is listed as a destroyer but the German constitution not allows to have destroyers. So we call all big ships frigates and the small ones corvettes. In Japan for example their aircraft carriers is named as helicopter destroyer because the Japanese constitution does not allow to have carriers. Greetings from Munich/Germany

The best illustration of the difference between a frigate and a destroyer that I had was sailing from Portsmouth, England on a ferry to France. Portsmouth is the Royal Navy's home port and seeing Type 23 Frigates berthed next to Type 45 Destroyers shows the difference in scale between the two types (incidentally both of the Queen Elizabeth class carriers were also berthed which put the Destroyers into perspective too) - a true destroyer is a much bigger ship than a frigate at least in British usage.

I think what happened is that we set out saying "we need x number of frigates," and then the salesmen, I mean lobbyist cornered the admirals and the congress critters, an song and danced them into all the add ons until we basically just bought destroyers.

It depends on how their govt naming what type of ship. My country Philippines received the former USCG Cutters and the Philippines navy formaly called them frigates.

This is made even more complicated by navies like the Royal Australian Navy calling the Hobart class a destroyer with a tonnage of 7000 and then you have the Hunter class frigate weighing in at 8800t

The lines are blurred. China Type 055 destroyers are larger than US cruisers. Perhaps some of their patrol boats are even larger than Arleigh Burke destroyers.

6:35 "destroyers tend to defend themselves against a modern threat and protect enemy ships in the composition" So are you saying destroyers crews are traitors? Please have someone else watch the video before uploading in future, saying a destroyer protects enemy ships is either a significant mistake or questioning the loyalty of destroyer crews, I can only assume this was supposed to be "protect against enemy ships" and you forgot to say the word "against".

This is mostly nonsense. US Navy has 0 frigates: They just don't use the term. Many other Navies (e.g. Dutch) have 0 destroyers: They just don't use the term. Role, size, bow shape, none of that matters anymore. Convention per Navy is the only correct answer.

So a Frigate can be a destroyer and a destroyer can be a frigate i got it now

Frigates, small fast heavily armed, not heavily armoured, whereas Destroyers are larger heavier, heavily armed and armoured and built to take more punishment than a frigate.... Or so I thought..

Mostly 150 to 200 sailors and more things that go boom at a longer range.

In thumbnail its corvette not a frigate Kamorta class to be specific

we cant afford a destroyer so frigate this will have to do😂

Destroyers are/were fleet ships meant to protect battleships/cruisers from torpedo boats & then from air attacks evolving into long range fleet escorts (USN) Frigates are medium sized independent and/or convoy escorts ... weight wise in between cruisers & corvettes & medium range (rest of navies) = so basically just two different names for exavtly the same thing aviso sloop corvette destroyer escort frigate patrol gunship light cruiser = same ship different names

are you the same guy from Military TV?

The german frigateclass "Baden-Würtemberg" has nearly the same size as the british type45-class destroyer.

I am afraid your thinking is outdated. For example the Australian Hobart Class Destroyer is 7,000 tons vs the new Hunter class Frigates that are 8,800 tons and of equal of superior weaponry / capability. Its really just a name.

200iq: I saw a F printed on the ship I assumed it’s a frigate.

I'm a bit surprised that you can't put your finger on the real explanation. The 'Why is it a Frigate'-video on my channel explains it. The difference isn't a matter of unclear generalizations. It's simply a matter of naval history and differing cultures.

LOl! 3:17 he's just reading from the first paragraph of the wikipedia page for destroyers.

Political definition overrides all the factors you listed. Japanese calls their carrier frigate.

When a modern Frigate turns up others pay attention ships smaller not so much. Hey look at that Warship

The new US Frigates are larger by about 3000 tons than the Perry's, US Destroyers are not that much bigger.... so, they are very blurred lines. I am not sure it really matters anymore in the US Fleet.

You talk too much. As per your point of view frigate is a ship with a displacement of 2000- 5000 tons but my friend in India we have Shivalik Class Frigates Displacement 6200 Tons and it's successor Nilgiri Class Frigates Displacement 6670 tons. These ships are capable to hunt enemy ship, submarine, missile and aircrafts.. Even French FREMM class 6000 tons and Italian Carlo Bergamini 6700 tons are called frigate.... So is there any difference between a frigate or Destroyer.

German frigates (Baden Württemberg class) would easily qualify as destroyers as they are the best in the world and have the size and capability.

I think a destroyer makes 30+ knots to keep up with a carrier strike group

It's awkward to classify today's warships w/ just few terms but 1 thing is clear: frigate is a cool term while destroyer is too generic, so unsurprising if other states would name their destroyers as frigates

Do you know what the US Navy calls Iranian ships ? TARGETS ! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Wasn't there a ship type called "subchaser" ? I think my uncle served on one in ww2.

To save your time. Destroyer is bigger than frigate, frigate is bigger than corvette. - End

The battleship turret is heavier than a both ships.

Trend of more Missiled Heavyweight-Frigate with multirole replaces Destroyer.

It is more a political thing today. Destroyers are moreortheless battle ships, at least cruisers. They are as heavy than cruisers and more expensive than battleships where. But they get a name like a small 1500 ts destroyer of WWII (to protect a convoy especially against submarines, Not used to operate on their own) to sound cheaper to the people ("We just built 10 destroyers!"). In Germany, we don't use destroyer anymore. It sounds too aggressive so we use frigate or korvette. This sounds more like a small ship out of old english pirate films. So the 10.000 ts F126 for 1.32 billion euros (1.5 billion USD) each, is not a cruiser, not even a destroyer, it is a frigate.

Welll tonage isnt relevant to compare with both being used as multipurpose most of the time its deployment range that makes the diference or how said larger tonage is used to increase fuel. By WW2 stadrards most modern destroyers are Cruisers. The problem with modern ship there is no clear identifyer like in the past. Even fast atack crafts can carriy (in small numbers) the main anti ship weapons of some cruiser. In WW2 there were destroyers that rivialed smaler cruisers but even then the endurance diference clearly set them apart. Depending on doctrine that isnt the case anymore today.

The difference between a Frigate and a Destroyer is that a Frigate only has a gun. Where as a Destroyer has both a Gun and a SAM. At least, that's what Ace Combat has taught me 😆😆

Yes what is really the difference between the destroyer and frigates wherein they are the same destroyer ships.

Just like how Pakistan calls its type 21 frigates “destroyers” for some reason maybe because after their modernization they’ve been given more missiles? Because they have the ly-60 SAM and harpoon missiles

They are terms that vary in meaning depending on who is saying them and in what context. This is because of traditional use of the words , use of the words in treaties to cripple adversary navies, use in violating treaties by changing the names of things, and use of the words to get funding for something the political powers don't want to fund by renaming it. Yes, it's a big mess.

At this point frigates are just cheaper destroyers. Baring some major war shifting things, at this rate (for the US at lest) I see destroyers getting bigger until they hit a point somewhere around half the size or so of what cruisers used to be (and I mean real cruisers like the Long Beach class) in which case the cruisers class type gets discontinued with destroyers taking over their role and frigates get to be around the size of current destroyers.

Generally speaking, the frigate is the destroyer of countries with more limited finances and ambitions at sea. Each fleet builds what it thinks it needs

Then the question? Why you need frigate...if you have a destroyer that can have double the firepower of frigate with the same armament loadout .

My 2 cents, of the ocean going warships designed to defeat other surface combatants Corvette = ultra light weight class, needs umbrella protection from other threats like submarines and aircraft. Frigate = light weight class, usually multirole but can also be tailored for a specific task ASW or Air warfare. Does not need umbrella protection. Eg an ASW frigate can hunt submarines but also defeat enemy surface combatants if it gets within range Destroyer = medium weight class, strong multirole capablity and able to divert resources to protect other ships, (i.e. undertake effective escort or carriers, supply ships, convoy etc) Cruiser = heavy weight class, like a destroyer but more capable.

Frigates also have 6 Torpedo Tubes, and 2 Helicopter Hangers and a number of different types of missiles!!!

In modern war the Frigates have the upper hand, the destroyers are more like the blue whale in the ocean, while the frigate is a dolphin.

At 9000 tonnes shouldn’t zumwalt (and others) be a cruiser… and as I type you’ve covered this. I still think a modern frigate is a light cruiser and a modern destroyer is a heavy cruiser. So different from the original 1000 to 2000 tonne destroyers

Corvette vs Challenger

Frigates are multi role though. Sure they have a primary role but they do do other stuff.

Today there is no difference between destroyer and frigates,fir example Indian navy consider its 7000 tonnes naval ship as frigate whereas some countries navies consider there 6000 tonne ship as destroyer .

Okay, no way would you have the Aircraft Carrier in front of the destroyer or cruisers. Even with submarines.

Ah but what’s the difference between a frigate and destroyer escort?