A light cruiser is a type of small-medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armoured cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armour in the same way as an armoured cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to this smaller cruisers had been of the protected cruiser model, possessing armoured decks only.
Heavy Cruiser
The heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range, high speed and an armament of naval guns roughly 203mm calibre (8 inches). The heavy cruiser can be seen as a lineage of ship design from 1915 until 1945, although the term 'heavy cruiser' only came into formal use in 1930. The heavy cruiser's immediate precursors were the light cruiser designs of the 1900s and 1910s, rather than the armoured cruisers of before 1905.
World War II
In the World War II era, light cruisers had guns ranging from 5 inch (127 mm), as seen in the Atlanta-class anti-aircraft cruiser, to 6.1 inch, though the most common size by far was 6 inch. Heavy cruisers usually had a battery of 8 inch (203 mm) guns. In the years leading up to World War II, with the London Naval Treaty making it impossible to build a balanced heavy cruiser design within tonnage limits, this led to the construction of a great number of light cruisers of 10,000 ton with twelve to fifteen 6-inch (152 mm) guns that were otherwise identical to heavy cruisers.
Heavy cruiser construction was phased out in Britain, France and Italy during the mid 1930s. However, the breakout of World War II allowed nations to skirt the London Treaty and exceed the 10,000 ton limit. By the end of the war, the US Navy's ships classed as "large cruisers" had displacements of nearly 30,000 tons (the Alaska-class cruiser), while light cruisers stayed in the region of 10,000 tons (although sometimes reaching 12,000 or 13,000 tons). Most modern guided missile cruisers have a similar displacement (10,000 tons for Ticonderoga, 12,000 for Slava, 28,000 for Kirov).
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