Countries by number of destroyers

A destroyer is a fast maneuverable long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller powerful short-range attackers. Modern destroyers, also known as guided missile destroyers, are equivalent in tonnage but vastly superior in firepower to cruisers of the World War II era.

However, in order to properly understand what destroyer is, we decided to provide you with in-depth description of characteristics that make destroyers so crucial part of every single fleet. The beginning of destroyers are in the end of nineteenth century. Back then, the main purpose of such warship was to eliminate combat torpedo boats. However, as the naval warfare developed, it was necessary to implement much more powerful and more diverse equipment in order to fight all the planes, submarines, and other threats. Due to that, destroyers became quite universal warships.

Although these fast and very manoeuvrable ships are of medium size, a lot of countries use them as a multi-tasking warship that can be used for many different operations, such as protecting fleet, fighting off aerial forces, eliminating submarines, as well as other surface vessels.

The history of destroyers became relevant from the 1940s, namely from the times of the Second World War. It was during this period that new subclasses of destroyers emerged. The two most important ones were frigates, and the other ones were escort destroyers. After the war, the equipment was complemented with rocket missiles.

It is important to know that many nations treat modern destroyers as frigates because of its similar purpose. However, destroyers are bigger than typical frigates and although in many cases they can have similar weight, there are destroyers far heavier than frigates. These elements are of course very important not only for the purpose of comparing the numbers of these vessels in selected countries. It is also crucial to know that frigates are usually slower than destroyers and provide army with smaller fire power.

However, the costs of destroyers are far greater than those of frigates. The most expensive destroyer in the world can cost more than $4 billion, whereas typical frigates can cost 16 times less! However, we should point out that the most expensive frigates can be as costly as medium-sized destroyers.

The charts can give you an exact numeric values of how many destroyers each country owns. Besides that, the statistics we gathered offered you a glimpse onto percentages and comparisons. It was possible only thanks to the access to database with all the necessary information.