Capital Ship

A capital ship is the most powerful class of warship in a fleet, the unit around which a navy’s main battle force is built. The term governed battleships and battlecruisers under the interwar naval treaties: the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty fixed capital ships at over 10,000 tons standard displacement or guns above 8-inch (203 mm) caliber and capped tonnage by nation. Since World War II the role has passed to the aircraft carrier, with the nuclear-powered submarine sometimes added; the battleship is obsolete as a capital type.