Editing Battleship (section)

=== Tactics ===
[[File:Hochseeflotte 2.jpg|thumb|Dreadnoughts of the [[High Seas Fleet]] steaming in [[line ahead]]]]

By the 1890s, naval tacticians had developed a number of formations in which to employ battleships. The most prominent were referred to as "line ahead" and "line abreast". The former, the standard tactic during the [[age of sail]], arrayed ships in a single-file line, which emphasized broadside fire. The latter placed ships side-by-side, which was suited to close-range melees where ramming and torpedoes could be effectively employed; after Tegetthoff's success at Lissa in 1866 used a modified line abreast formation, the tactic enjoyed a period of popularity for several years. By the 1880s, line-ahead tactics had returned to prominence.{{sfn|Wilson|1896|pp=153–155}}{{sfn|Sondhaus|2001|pp=42, 96, 171}} Royal Navy officers devised the tactic referred to as "crossing the T" of an enemy fleet, whereby one fleet steaming in line-ahead formation crossed in front of another line of battleships. This maneuver would allow one's own battleships to concentrate entire broadsides on the leading enemy ship, while one's opponent could only reply with their forward guns. Many navies adopted the tactic soon thereafter.{{sfn|Sondhaus|2001|p=189}}{{sfn|Tully|2009|p=189}}

As the threat of underwater attack, including mines and torpedoes, developed after the 1860s, capital ships could no longer maintain close blockades of enemy ports. This required smaller, faster scouts to observe hostile ports so that an enemy fleet could be brought to battle. Modern cruisers began to be built in the 1880s for this purpose.{{sfn|Friedman|2012|p=23}} Almost immediately after the invention of the airplane, navies recognized its potential as a reconnaissance unit for the fleet's battleships.{{sfn|Hone|Friedman|Mandeles|1999|pp=14–15}}

The Austro-Hungarian Navy, then following the ''Jeune École'' doctrine of the 1870s and 1880s, devised the tactic of placing torpedo boats alongside battleships; these would hide behind the larger ships until gun-smoke obscured visibility enough for them to dart out and fire their torpedoes.{{sfn|Sondhaus|2001|p=145}} While this tactic was made less effective by the development of smokeless propellant,{{sfn|Dahl|2005|p=119}} the threat from more capable torpedo craft (later including submarines) remained. By the 1890s, the Royal Navy had developed the first destroyers, which were initially designed to intercept and drive off any attacking torpedo boats. The other major naval powers quickly followed suit with similar vessels of their own.{{sfn|Sondhaus|2001|pp=168–169}}