Target ship A target ship is a vessel — typically an obsolete or captured warship — used as a seaborne target for naval gunnery practice or for weapons testing . Rationale . Sinking redundant warships is an effective way of testing new weapons and warships in as realistic a manner as possible . Whilst practice torpedo es are fired fairly frequently , they behave differently from warshots . Preparation . In order to meet environmental , health , and safety standards , ships have to be thoroughly cleaned so that all dangerous material and potential contaminants ( such as asbestos , refrigerants etc . ) are removed . In the event of the vessel becoming an artificial reef , escape exits also have to be created in the vessel , should divers encounter problems . It is now also common practice to remove pennant number s and sink the warships anonymously , as a mark of respect to those who sailed in them . In September 1819 , the French engineer and Army artillery officer Henri - Joseph Paixhans wrote to the Ministry of the Navy to propose a fusing system to fire explosive shells at wooden warships , instead of the usual , solid round shots that were then in general naval use . A commission studied the matter , and decided to build two Paixhans howitzers for trial purposes in 1822 . Notable examples . In 1824 , the 80 - gun ship of the line " Pacificateur " , made redundant by the Bourbon Restoration , was condemned . She was a " Bucentaure " class two - decker of the same type as the French flagship of the Battle of Trafalgar . The two prototypes were fired at her with devastating effect . This led to the adoption of the Paixhans gun in 1827 . They were used to great effect at the Battle of San Juan de Ulua , to the interest of British and US observers , who announced the demise of wooden warships and the era of the ironclad . The British pre - dreadnought battleship HMS " Agamemmnon " was converted to radio - control in 1920 - 21 and used for assessments of the damage that could be caused by aircraft and various calibres of guns . She was replaced in the role by the battleship " Centurion " in 1926 . After World War I ended , the US Navy and Army did live fire testing of attacking warships from the air . To get the testing as close to wartime conditions as possible , the USS " Iowa " was converted into a radio - controlled target ship , the first in United States naval history . A well known radio engineer , John Hays Hammond , Jr . developed the radio control gear for the Iowa . In 1923 , the Iowa was sunk off the Pacific coast of Panama during fleet exercises , with members of Congress and the press attending , by the battleship " Mississippi " . In the early 1930s the US Navy got serious about remote control ships and fitted the destroyer " Stoddert " with an improved radio controls developed by Lieutenant Commander Boyd R . Alexander , a radio design officer , and the " Naval Research Laboratory " in Bellevue D . C . for further testing and evaluation . The evaluation proved so successful that the US Navy moved up their plans for radio controlled warships and in 1932 the obsolete battleship USS " Utah " and the destroyers " Boggs " and " Kilty " were converted to remote radio control . A familiar sight for more than fifty years in Cape Cod Bay , Massachusetts was the . This World War II Liberty Ship was towed to a sandbar off shore in 1944 and was used for bombing practice through the Vietnam War . The German Deutschland class cruiser , " Lützow " was refloated by the Soviet Navy after her scuttling in 1945 and used as a target in the Baltic Sea in 1949 . Operation Crossroads was a 1946 series of US nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll that used 95 target ships . Some were obsolete US ships , such as the USS " Nevada " , others were ships surrendered by the Axis powers at the end of World War II , such as the German heavy cruiser " Prinz Eugen " and the Japanese battleship " Nagato " . Operation Deadlight was the destruction of 116 surrendered , German U - boats between November 1945 and February 1946 by the Royal Navy . The submarines were sunk in deep water to the north west of Ireland . Some were scuttled with explosive charges and others sank accidentally in bad weather while under tow . The remainder were sunk by ships and aircraft , using rockets , bombs , depth charges and gunfire . The Royal Australian Navy ( RAN ) sunk HMAS " Torrens " on June 14 , 1999 with a Mk48 wire guided torpedo fired from the " Collins " class submarine HMAS " Farncomb " . Torrens was the last of six Australian River class destroyer s , the others ( " Derwent " , " Parramatta " , " Stuart " , " Swan " and " Yarra " ) having been disposed of previously . Before the sinking " Torrens " had been thoroughly cleaned of all fuels , oils and potentially environmentally harmful substances . Her gun turret was donated to the South Western City of Albany . " Torrens " was then towed from Fleet Base West ( HMAS " Stirling " ) out to sea , west of Perth . The submarine fired the torpedo at the stationary target from a submerged position over the horizon . The sinking of " Torrens " was a display of firepower that provided some much needed positive publicity for the " Collins " class submarines , plagued by numerous technical problems and criticised over troubles with the combat system and noise reduction . Ric Shalders , commander of the Submarine Squadron said " the requirement of new submarine trials , the new need to test war - stock and the availability of the Torrens all came together to produce a very satisfactory result " . As exercises . The US military term Sink Exercise ( SINKEX ) is used for the test of a weapons system usually involving a torpedo or missile attack of an unmanned target ship . The US Navy uses SINKEX to train its sailors on the usage of modern - day weapons . This technique is used to dispose of decommissioned warships . The US Navy performs SINKEXs north of Kauai , Hawaii , in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California , and near Puerto Rico .