ABSTRACT
Surely the most striking development in the US Navy, from the late 1970s on, was the change in the status of its surface combatant ships, from escorts to capital ships. From the middle of the Second World War through to the late 1970s, these ships were primarily escorts for the only effective offensive ships, the carriers. In that role they changed enormously, guns being exchanged for missiles and grease-pencil plots for computers. However, in a fundamental sense they did not change at all. Even the advent of the Harpoon anti-ship missile made little difference. In an important sense it was a longer-range equivalent to the guns and torpedoes of the past.
