In the present paper, the history for the development of war ship steels in the United States, including their composition system, processing routes and typical applications, was summarized. The development trend of new generation war ship steels was pointed out. The history for the development of war ship steels in China was also introduced, and the gap in war ship steels between our country and world powers was analyzed. In addition, prototype steel plate with extremely low carbon content was fabricated at laboratory scale. By applying controlled rolling and heat treatment, the optimized combination of high strength and high toughness has been obtained. The mechanisms of strengthening and toughening for the experimental steel was elucidated by EBSD and TEM, which indicates that precipitation hardening by nano-composite precipitates plays the main role in strengthening this steel. Finally, the key processing routes and equipment developed in China for manufacturing steels with high strength and toughness were outlined. It can be clearly seen that both new generation TMCP technologies and the equipment for on-line cooling and off-line heat treatment developed in China have already reached the international level, which has laid solid foundation for developing new generation war ship steels of our own.