Frigate vs Destroyer | What is the Difference Between the Two Warships

Warships are a key part of a Navy's surface fleet and come in a variety of shapes and sizes depending on their capabilities and functions. Frigates and destroyers are two of the most common warships in a Navy's fleet. Both are designed for quick maneuverability and can be used to escort and protect larger vehicles from air, surface, and underwater threats. The similarities between frigates and destroyers have led to some European navies using the On the other hand, frigates are more common, with almost every Navy in the world in possession of a frigate as a part of its Navy fleet, while only 13 nations possess destroyers according to the Global Firepower Index 2019. Frigate vs Destroyer, what are some of the key differences? Of the 55 nations that own frigate ships, China leads the world with 52 frigates across followed, perhaps surprisingly, by Taiwan, which has 24, and the US with 22 vessels. Destroyers are much less common, with only a handful of navies possessing these kinds of warships. The US Navy owns the most destroyers, with 68 currently in service. Japan comes in second with 37, followed by China, which owns 33 vessels. Some nations, such as Spain and Germany, officially have no destroyers, although many of their frigate ships are almost identical to what other nations would class as a destroyer vessel. Destroyer warships come in a range of sizes. Smaller destroyers, such as the Royal Navy's Type 45 Daring-class and Russia's Project 956 Sovremenni-class, measure in at around 150 meters in length, with a beam of around 17 to 18 meters. Then there is the US Navy's Zumwalt-class destroyer, a 190-meter-long colossus with a beam of 24.6 meters. The Zumwalt-class weighs in at nearly 16,000 tons, making it double the weight of smaller destroyers that weigh in at around 8,000 tons at full load. While frigates vary greatly in terms of size, many of the top frigates, such as Russia's Admiral Gorshkov-class and Germany's Soxen-class, are smaller than destroyers, measuring in at around 130 meters to 150 meters in length. They are roughly the same width as destroyer vessels. The key distinction between frigates and destroyers is size and, by extension, function, says Dr. Siddharth Kaushal, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies. By virtue of being larger, destroyers can more easily carry and generate the power for more powerful high-resolution radar and a larger number of vertical launch cells. They can thus provide theater-wide air and missile defense for forces such as carrier battle group and typically serve this function. Frigates are thus usually used as escort vessels to protect sea lines of communication or as an auxiliary component of a strike group, whereas destroyers are generally integrated into carrier battle groups as the air defense component or utilized to provide territorial air and missile defense. Frigates are generally slower than destroyers, although in modern times there is not a significant difference. One of the faster frigate ships is the Indian Navy's Shivalik-class that is touted to travel up to 32 kilonauts, 59 kilometers per hour at max speed, while others range between 26 and 30 kilonauts, 48 to 55 kilometers per hour. Despite its impressive size, the Zumwalt-class destroyer can travel up to 30 kilonauts, slightly slower than the smaller Silver Mini and Daring-classes, which have an average of 32 kilonauts. The Zumwalt-class is still as fast, if not faster, than most frigate-classes. Modern destroyer vessels peak at around 33 kilonauts, 61 kilometers per hour, while the fastest ever recorded destroyer was the French Navy's Le Terrible that reached 45.1 kilonauts, 83.5 kilometers per hour, during sea trials in 1935. Unsurprisingly, both frigates and destroyers are armed with the latest weapons and defense systems, which are vital for carrying out their escort and protect rules. Some frigates, such as the Royal Navy's Duke-class, have specialized anti-submarine warfare capabilities and are fitted with enhanced sonar equipment and torpedoes. Anti-submarine warfare-enhanced frigates come with helipads and hangars that accommodate helicopters capable of identifying and attacking nuclear submarines, using torpedo and depth charges. The Duke-class is equipped with two twin Stingray torpedo tubes and can accommodate either a Westland Lynx helicopter armed with two torpedoes or a Westland Merlin with four torpedoes. Frigates being a smaller vessel can provide limited air defense to themselves and nearby vessels but are not particularly well-suited to theater air defense. They tend to be utilized primarily for anti-submarine warfare rules as well as providing short-range air defense as part of a larger surface group. Some destroyers have been modified specifically for launching anti-ship and anti-aircraft-guided missiles. The U.S. Navy's Zumwalt and Arleigh Burke-classes have this capability. As does the Royal Navy's Daring-class and Russia's Sovremenny-class. Take for example the Daring-class's Sea Viper comprehensive defense system that allows the Royal Navy to track targets from up to 400 kilometers away using a SAMSON active electronically scanned array and a 48-cell Silver Vertical Launching System with Aster 15 and Aster 30 surface-to-air missiles. The Behemoth Zumwalt-class comes with 20 Mk 57 Vertical Launching System modules with 80 launch cells and can fire Evolved Sea Sparrow missiles and Tactical Tomahawk subsonic cruise missiles. It is very difficult to pinpoint the unit prices of certain classes of ship, let alone types of ships, however here are some estimates of the most expensive vessels. The most expensive destroyer in the world is the U.S. Navy's Zumwalt-class. The very first model, the DDG-1000, cost around $4.2 billion according to Naval Institute News, $3.8 billion for non-recurring engineering costs, and an additional $400 million for post-delivery and outfitting. The second and third, in-production ships, are estimated to be cheaper at $2.8 billion and $2.4 billion respectively. This is expensive compared to the Royal Navy's Daring-class destroyers that are priced at a little over £1 billion, $1.36 billion. In contrast, frigate ships are much more cost-efficient. The Royal Navy's Duke-class was priced at around £130 million per vessel, while the much-anticipated Type 31 frigate was estimated in 2017 to cost around £250 million per unit according to a UK government fact sheet.