The World’s 11 Largest Warships

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Apr 14, 7:12AM EDT

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The World’s 11 Largest Warships — © LorraineHudgins / Getty Images

By most accounts, the United States has had the largest and most powerful navy in the world since World War II. But based on at least one metric, that is no longer the case. China has a larger fleet, based on the total number of ships. When taking into account size and strength, the United States might still be in the lead. The U.S. has the world’s largest warships — American aircraft carriers. The Chinese navy has put out carriers of their own, with two afloat and at least one more being built. (These are the six nations besides the United States with aircraft carriers.)

The older of the two classes is the Nimitz-class carrier, named after World War II Pacific fleet admiral Chester Nimitz. Starting in 1975, the Navy commissioned 10 carriers in this class. They are 1,092 feet long and displace 100,000 long tons. They have a maximum speed of 30 knots, and their engines can produce 260,000 shaft horsepower. Each has a crew of about 6,000. The cost for each carrier was approximately $9 billion. (These are the states with the most veterans.)

The Nimitz-class carriers are being replaced by the Gerald R. Ford-class carriers. The Navy plans to have 10 of these eventually. Each is 1,092 feet long and has a displacement similar to Nimitz-class ships. The cost of these new carriers will be about $12 billion per ship. Each will have a crew of approximately 4,000. The first four carriers in the class have already been named: Gerald R. Ford (commissioned 2017), John F. Kennedy (scheduled for 2024), Enterprise (scheduled for 2028), and Doris Miller (scheduled for 2032).

The Navy has discovered a number of problems with the early Ford-class construction. According to the Congressional Research Service, “In addition to challenges in building, testing, and certifying the ship’s weapon elevators, the Navy reportedly has been working to address problems with other systems on the ship, including its propulsion and electrical systems.”

The largest warships behind the two U.S. carrier classes are carriers from China, Russia, and France. (These are America’s largest military bases around the world.)

To identify the world’s largest warships, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the length of warships from around the world from Military Machine. Ship class, name, and country of origin are also from Military Machine.

Click here to see the world’s largest warship

JMSDF CVH JS Izumo in Ocean by u6d77u4e0au81eau885bu968a

JMSDF CVH JS Izumo in Ocean (CC BY-SA 4.0) by u6d77u4e0au81eau885bu968a

11. Izumo-Class Helicopter Destroyer
> Country: Japan
> Length (in feet): 814

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Kirov-class battlecruiser by MITSUO SHIBATA

Kirov-class battlecruiser (CC0 1.0) by MITSUO SHIBATA

10. Kirov-class Cruiser
> Country: Russia
> Length (in feet): 827

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USS Wasp (LHD-1) Osprey 2 by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Zachary L. Borden

USS Wasp (LHD-1) Osprey 2 (CC0 1.0) by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Zachary L. Borden

9. Wasp-Class Amphibious Assault ship
> Country: United States
> Length (in feet): 843

8. America-Class Amphibious Assault Ship
> Country: United States
> Length (in feet): 844

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7. Charles De Gaulle-Class Aircraft Carrier
> Country: France
> Length (in feet): 858

FS Clemenceau (R98) side view by NetMarine

FS Clemenceau (R98) side view (CC BY-SA 3.0) by NetMarine

6. Clemenceau-Class Aircraft Carrier
> Country: France
> Length (in feet): 869

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The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) leads a formation of ships from the Indian Navy, JMSDF and the U.S. Navy July 17, 2017 in the Bay of Bengal as part of Exercise Malabar 2017 (CC0 1.0) by U.S. Navy

5. Indian-Modified Kiev-Class Carrier
> Country: India
> Length (in feet): 896

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Aircraft Carrier Liaoning CV-16 by Baycrest

Aircraft Carrier Liaoning CV-16 (CC BY-SA 2.5) by Baycrest

4. Chinese Completed Kuznetsov-Class Aircraft Carrier
> Country: China
> Length (in feet): 999

3. Kuznetsov-Class Carrier
> Country: Russia
> Length (in feet): 1,001

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2. Nimitz-Class Aircraft Carrier
> Country: United States
> Length (in feet): 1,092

1. Ford-Class Aircraft Carrier
> Country: United States
> Length (in feet): 1,092

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.