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FIGHTING SHIPS OF THE WORLD
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
CRUISERS
LONG BEACH nuclear powered missile cruiser (1961)


Photo



  Long Beach 1980

Ships


No Name Yard No Builder Laid down Launched Comm Fate
CGN9 Long Beach 1669 Bethlehem, Quincy 2.12.1957 14.7.1959 9.9.1961 stricken 5.1995


Technical data


Displacement standard, t

14200

Displacement full, t

16602

Length, m

210.4 wl 219.9 oa

Breadth, m

22.3

Draught, m

7.30

No of shafts

2

Machinery

2 sets General Electric geared steam turbines, 2 C1W reactors

Power, h. p.

80000

Max speed, kts

30

Fuel, t

nuclear

Endurance, nm(kts)practically unlimited
Armament

1 x 2 Talos SAM (52 RIM-8), 2 x 2 Terrier SAM (120 RIM-2), 1 x 8 ASROC ASuR (20 RUR-5A), 2 x 3 - 324 Mk 32 TT, helicopter deck

Electronic equipmentSPS-32, SPS-33, SPS-10C, 2x SPG-49/SPW-2, 4x SPG-55C radars, SQS-23 sonar, WLR-1, WLR-3 ECM suites, 2x Mk 28 decoy RL, NTDS CCS
Complement

1107



Standard scale images


<i>Long Beach </i>1991
Long Beach 1991
<i>Long Beach </i>1963
Long Beach 1963
<i>Long Beach </i>1970
Long Beach 1970
<i>Ling Beach </i>1961
Ling Beach 1961


Graphics


  <i>Long Beach</i> 1980
  Long Beach 1980


Project history

Intended at first as a nuclear frigate, this ship grew in the design stage to large cruiser size; indeed, she was the only cruiser (of traditional size) built as such by the US Navy after the war. She shared with Enterprise the futuristic fixed-array SPS-32/33 radar system, and has an SQS-23 long-range sonar in her bow, with the associated ASROC launcher amidships, as well as a pair of single 127mm/38 guns, which were not part of the original design. She combined a pair of Terrier launchers forward (one with forty, one with eighty missiles) with Talos aft (fifty two missiles, as in the Albany), and had a two-reactor power plant. Although Long Beach was a substantial ship at over 14000t, she stands in contrast to much larger nuclear cruisers proposed in the mid-1950s with four-shaft plants more closely approaching traditional cruiser power. Polaris or Regulus II was included in the original design, but neither was installed. The C1W reactors installed are reportedly very similar to the A2Ws of the Enterprise, presumably somewhat uprated, as total Enterprise power is reported as 280000shp.

The SPS-32/33 radar system was combined with one of the earliest NTDS installations. In 1968 a conventional SPS-12 air search radar was added, partly because of maintenance difficulties with the fixed radars, and partly because the fixed sets did not have any integral IFF. A 1970 modernization provided integral IFF and digital Talos fire control. A proposal for Aegis conversion was rejected in 1977, reportedly out of concern that it would have jeopardised the Strike cruiser programme itself.

Modernizations

1963: + 2 x 1 - 127/38 Mk 30, 2x Mk 35 radars

1968: + SPS-12 radar

1978: - 1 x 2 Talos SAM, 2x SPG-49/SPW-2 radars; + 2 x 4 Harpoon SSM (8 RGM-84A)

3/1983: - 2 x 2 Terrier SAM, SPS-32, SPS-33, SPS-10, 4x SPG55C radars, SQS-23 sonar, WLR-1, WLR-3 ECM suites, 2x Mk 28 decoy RL; + 2 x 4 Tomahawk CruM (8 BGM-109A), 2 x 2 Standard SM-2ER SAM (120 RIM-67), 2 x 6 - 20/76 Mk 15 Phalanx, LN-66, SPS-48C, SPS-49, SPS-67, 4x SPG-55D, 2x Mk 90 radars, SQQ-23B sonar, SLQ-32(v)3 ECM suite, 4x Mk 36 SRBOC decoy RL

Naval service

No significant events.