dreadnought

A dreadnought is a type of battleship that defined a new era in naval power in the early 20th century. The term originates with the Royal Navy's HMS Dreadnought, launched in 1906, which popularized a design philosophy based on an all-big-gun armament and steam turbine propulsion. The ship’s name became a generic label for a generation of battleships built to the same concept.

Design and characteristics closely associated with dreadnoughts include a uniform main battery of large-caliber guns and a departure from the mixed-caliber armament of earlier ships. The typical main battery consisted of ten 12-inch guns arranged in four turrets: two triple-forward and two double-aft. This arrangement allowed a more concentrated and manageable firepower profile. Dreadnoughts also employed steam turbine propulsion, usually powered by oil-fired boilers, which delivered higher speeds—several knots faster than pre-dreadnoughts. Armor protection was substantial, though the exact balance of armor and protection varied by class.

The introduction of the dreadnought concept rapidly reshaped naval competition. It made older pre-dreadnought battleships obsolete and sparked a naval arms race among major powers, leading to a wave of new battleships designed around the all-big-gun doctrine. By the 1910s and into World War I, many fleets operated dreadnoughts and their successors, the so-called super-dreadnoughts, which carried larger guns and increased displacement.

In service, dreadnoughts participated in major naval operations and battles of the era, including the Battle of Jutland in 1916. The term remained a defining label for battleships built under the all-big-gun doctrine through the interwar period, before the emergence of air power and missiles transformed naval warfare.

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