Destroyers are ships meant to protect larger water craft. Designed to be nimble, the ships lack the bulky armor that slows other craft, but they also lack that armor’s protection. Despite this, destroyers still have plenty of defensive capabilities in the form of armaments to fend off attacks from submarines, surface ships and aircraft.

Destroyers can lay down suppressing gunfire against amphibious assaults, patrol waters and perform search and rescue missions. Their weaponry includes 5-inch guns and a variety of anti-submarine weapons, including torpedoes, anti-submarine rockets and Terrier and Tartar missiles.

The American destroyer program was launched following the U.S. Navy’s encounter with two formidable Spanish destroyers in the Spanish-American War. The first U.S. destroyer, the USS Bainbridge, was commissioned on Dec.23, 1903, but the American destroyer did not truly come into its own until World War I.

During this conflict, U.S. destroyers engaged 250 times with German submarines and successfully escorted some 2 million fighters across the Atlantic. By the end of the war, the size of the American destroyer fleet was unrivaled.

During World War II, destroyers were all-purpose ships. They fended off air, surface and underwater attacks, and they escorted aircraft carriers and battleships into enemy waters. They provided cover fire for troops, retrieved pilots downed at sea and even delivered mail.

Today, the U.S. Navy has more than 50 destroyers, most of them built like the USS Arleigh Burke. The Arleigh Burke is made of steel, and, like others in its class, uses gas turbine propulsion.

With crews of more than 20 officers and about 300 enlisted personnel, these ships are about 500 feet long and 59 feet tall at their highest point. With a full load, these destroyers weigh anywhere from 8,400 to 9,200 tons and have a top speed of about 35 miles per hour. They are equipped with SPY-1 Radar, Aegis combat systems, vertical launch missiles, Tomahawk missiles, anti-submarine warfare systems and anti-aircraft missiles.