USS Long Beach (CGN-9)

USS Long Beach on 9 May 1973
Class overview
BuildersBethlehem Steel Co., Fore River Shipyard, Quincy, Massachusetts
Preceded byProvidence class
Succeeded byAlbany class
Built1957–1961
In commission1961–1995
Completed1
Retired1
History
United States
NameLong Beach
NamesakeLong Beach
Ordered15 October 1956
Laid down2 December 1957
Launched14 July 1959
Sponsored byMrs. Marian Swanson-Hosmer
Acquired1 September 1961
Commissioned9 September 1961
Decommissioned
  • 1 May 1995
  • (deactivated on 2 July 1994)
ReclassifiedAs CGN-9 1 July 1958
Stricken1 May 1995
MottoStrike Hard, Strike Home
FateA 423 ft (129 m) section of the hull (propulsion block) remain at PSNS as of May 2018.
General characteristics
TypeNuclear-powered guided missile cruiser
Displacement15,540 tons
Length721 ft 3 in (219.84 m)
Beam71 ft 6 in (21.79 m)
Draft30 ft 7 in (9.32 m)
Propulsion2 C1W nuclear reactors; 2 General Electric turbines; 80,000 shp (60 MW); 2 propellers
Speed30 knots (56 km/h)
RangeUnlimited (nuclear)
Complement1,160 officers and men
Sensors and
processing systems
Electronic warfare
& decoys
AN/SLQ-32 SRBOC
Armament
Aviation facilitiesLanding pad available for one helicopter

USS Long Beach (CLGN-160/CGN-160/CGN-9) was a nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser in the United States Navy and the world's first nuclear-powered surface combatant.[3] She was the third Navy ship named after the city of Long Beach, California.

She was the sole member of the Long Beach class, and the last cruiser built for the United States Navy to a cruiser design; all subsequent cruiser classes were built on scaled-up destroyer hulls (and originally classified as destroyer leaders) or, in the case of the Albany class, converted from already existing cruisers.[citation needed]

Long Beach was laid down 2 December 1957, launched 14 July 1959 and commissioned 9 September 1961 under the command of then-Captain Eugene Parks Wilkinson, who previously served as the first commanding officer of the world's first nuclear-powered vessel, the submarine USS Nautilus. She was deployed to Vietnam during the Vietnam War and served numerous times in the Western Pacific, Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf. But by the 1990s, nuclear power was deemed too expensive to use on surface ships smaller than an aircraft carrier in view of defense budget cutbacks after the end of the Cold War. Long Beach was decommissioned on 1 May 1995 instead of receiving her third nuclear refueling and proposed upgrade. After removal of the nuclear fuel, superstructure, and sections of the bow and stern, the hull segment containing the reactor and machinery spaces was moored at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and sold for scrap.

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Blackman, Raymond V. B. Jane's Fighting Ships (1970/71) p.425
  2. ^ a b Polmar, Norman "The U.S. Navy: Shipboard Radars" United States Naval Institute Proceedings December 1978 p.144
  3. ^ "USS Long Beach CGN-9". Naval History and Heritage Command. Retrieved 16 March 2021.