Lead ship - Definition and Overview

The lead ship is the first of a series or class of ships all constructed according to the same general design. Large ships are complicated internally, and may take a long time to construct, as much as five to 10 years, so it is rare to have two of them that are completely identical. It may also be that the second and later ships must be started before the first one is even launched. Nevertheless, it is still more efficient to build copies than prototypes, and so the lead ship will be the one that guides the construction of the others in its class. The name of the lead ship is often used to name the whole ship class.

In the United States Navy, since the 20th century to the present, the lead ship usually lends its name to the ship class, as in Pennsylvania class battleship, whose lead ship was the USS Pennsylvania (BB-38), or more recently Los Angeles class submarine named after the USS Los Angeles (SSN 688). In the latter case, the Los Angeles's hull number "688" is also used informally to refer to the class.