Admiral Nakhimov is now on track to become the Russian Navy's flagship, as Moscow has scrapped plans to see its sister ship Pyotr Velikiy undergo a similarly expensive refit.

Rodger offers close attention to the somewhat impossible act of prognostication that is ship design over these 130 years.

After one hour of dashing madly across the Surigao Strait under ceaseless Japanese warplane fire, the three brand-new ...