Leahy class

USS Richmond K. Turner in Charleston, South Carolina in 1988
Overview
Type	Guided missile cruiser
units	9 built, 0 in service
Namesake	Fleet Admiral William Daniel Leahy
period of service	1962 to 1995
Technical specifications
displacement	Standard : 6070 ts Maximum: 8281 ts
length	162.5 meters
width	16.8 meters
Draft	7.9 meters
crew	37 officers, 414 NCOs and men
drive	2 propellers, driven by 2 turbines; 85,000 hp
speed	34 knots
Range	8000  nautical miles at 14 knots
Armament	2 starter anti-aircraft missiles, 1 starter ASROC, 2 triple torpedo launchers,

The Leahy-class was a class of nine guided missile cruisers that the United States Navy put into service in the 1960s. The class introduced some innovations, including the abandonment of classic masts. Instead platforms were attached to the chimneys, this construction was called Mack . The units remained in service until the mid-1990s.

history

Planning and construction

Dale on the launch

The Leahy class was designed in the late 1950s. In 1959 and 1960, nine units of the class were commissioned, with five different shipyards entrusted with the construction. The nine ships could therefore be put into service between August 1962 and May 1964 within only 19 months. The shipyards were Bath Iron Works for three Leahys , New York Shipbuilding for two ships, and Todd Pacific Shipyards , Lockheed Shipbuilding and Construction Company , Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and San Francisco Naval Shipyard for one unit each. Nothing was known about the construction costs of the units.

The nuclear cruiser USS Bainbridge (CGN-25) , which was built at the Fore River Shipyard from 1959 and has the same weapon arrangement as the Leahys , is also based on the Leahy class . Only the hull was stretched to accommodate the two nuclear reactors .

At the time of commissioning, the units were classified as DLG (Destroyer Leader Guided Missile, literally: destroyer leader with guided missiles ). Regardless of this, the ships of this class were usually referred to as Large Frigates (Eng .: large frigates). This juxtaposition of different names made it clear that the system at that time was in need of reform. In the course of the abolition of this classification in 1975, the units were reclassified to guided missile cruisers (CG, Cruiser Guided Missile).

Modifications

As early as 1970, the units were all subjected to a first modification, in which, in addition to innovations to the radar systems, above all the superstructures amidships were enlarged, creating more closed space on board. The cost of this is known, it was $ 36 million per unit. Around 1980 the New Threat Upgrade was installed on the ships, which mainly brought the guided missile systems up to date. The longer shipyard layover also enabled the crew areas on board to be completely renovated.

Period of service & whereabouts

Two Leahys are waiting to be used again

The units were put into service between 1962 and 1964, so retrospectively they were the first class of originally planned and built destroyer commanders with guided missiles or guided missile cruisers (the previous CGs were, with the exception of the USS Long Beach (CGN-9) , converted and - classified light and heavy cruisers ).

The Leahys were followed by the Belknap , California and Virginia class cruisers until 1980 , until today's standard class of cruisers, the Ticonderoga class , was introduced in 1983 . This type ultimately also replaced the Leahy class when the nine units were decommissioned between 1993 and 1995 after their intended service life of 30 years.

The decommissioned ships were either sunk as training targets (four units) or demolished and sold as scrap (five Leahys ).

technology

hull

View from starboard of the Harry E. Yarnell

The hull of the Leahy class was 162.5 meters long and 16.8 meters wide, which kept the classic ratio of length to width 10: 1. The draft was 7.9 meters. The displacement with full payload was 8,281 ts . While the hull was made of steel, all superstructures were made of light metals, especially aluminum, in order to save weight and have more usable tonnage available.

With the Leahy class , a mast structure called Mack was chosen for the first time . Mack , a mixture of the English words mast and stack , describes a mast shape that no longer needs mast legs because platforms are attached to the chimneys (English stack ). The Leahys carry such platforms on both chimneys to accommodate the radar and radio technology.

The class had neither a hangar for permanent stationing of a helicopter nor a place to land helicopters. There was only deck space , which was intended for VERTREP , i.e. for the supply by hovering helicopters (VERTREP: Vertical Replenishment, German: vertical supply).

drive

The Leahy class was powered by steam turbines. In four boilers (from Babcock & Wilcox on the first three, from Foster Wheeler on the remaining units) water was heated to a pressure of 1,200 psi (85 bar) and the water vapor directed to two geared turbines , each of which has a shaft with a single Screw drive. The turbines were produced by General Electric (three units), De Laval on four ships and Allis-Chalmers on the last two Leahys . The system's output was 85,000 hp, which means the ships could reach up to 34 knots. The Leahys were able to carry 1,800 ts of fuel on board , giving them the longest range of any Navy ship with this propulsion system, namely 2,500 nautical miles at 30 knots or 8,000 nautical miles at 14 knots.

Armament

The rear guided missile launcher and the SPG-55 radar illuminator. A quadruple harpoon starter and phalanx can be seen on the starboard side

The Leahy-class ships were the first naval warships to carry their guided missiles in the so-called "double-end" arrangement. By this is meant that they carried a guided missile starter both fore and aft. These were Mod. 10 double-arm launchers for anti-aircraft missiles of the RIM-2 Terrier type , later also RIM-66 Standard Missile ER and RIM-67 SM-ER . For use against submarines, the boats carried a starter for eight ASROC rocket torpedoes , which was set up behind the front guided missile launcher , as well as six torpedo tubes for the Mark 46 lightweight torpedo , which were placed in two groups of three amidships on deck.

From 1980 onwards, two quad launchers for the anti-ship missile AGM-84 Harpoon were set up on all Leahys . In addition, two short-range defense systems of the Phalanx CIWS type were installed on the aft superstructure , which offered protection against missiles flying up. For this purpose, four anti-aircraft guns were removed from the caliber 7.6 cm (3 inch ), which were placed aft in two batteries. The guns could no longer be used effectively against the jets and missiles of the 1980s.

electronics

Radar antennas, right SPS-49 , left SPS-48 , above SPS-10

The radars used on the ships have been modernized over and over again. Only the navigation radar SPS-10 from Raytheon , which was located on the front Mack on the top platform, was used continuously. As an aerial surveillance radar, the SPS-37 from Westinghouse Electric was initially installed on the aft Mack ; it worked together with a 3D radar SPS-39 from Hughes Aircraft , which was located under the SPS-10 . During the first modernization of the ships, the SPS-39 was replaced by the SPS-48 system from ITT-Gilfillan , during the second major shipyard layover, all ships received a SPS-49 from Raytheon as a replacement for the outdated SPS-37 .

The sonar was also modernized in the 1980s. While the Leahys initially wore an SQS-23 , it was later replaced by a SQQ-23 system with two sonodomes, which could detect submarines both actively and passively.

For electronic warfare , all units carried antennas of the WLR-6 system at the beginning , from 1975 the Leahys received SLQ-32 and thus also the SRBOC system to deflect missiles and the Nixie , a torpedo bait towed behind the ship.

Mission profile

The England and Midway aircraft carrier are supplied with fuel by the USNS Navasota tanker

The Leahys were designed as escort ships for the aircraft carrier combat groups of the US Navy. With their double-end arrangement of anti-aircraft weapons, they were particularly suitable for air defense, but on the other hand they could also be used for anti- submarine hunting . After being retrofitted with the Harpoon in 1980, it was also possible to use it against other ships, which made it multi-mission-capable , i.e. it allowed operations against air, sea and underwater targets. In addition, the units partially served as a flagship for destroyer units and small combat groups.

The class’s first missions included trips off the coast of Vietnam, protecting aircraft carriers from attack on Yankee Station during the Vietnam War . Towards the end of the ships' careers, Leahys were used during Operation Earnest Will , and then as part of the naval force that was raised in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea during the Second Gulf War . The last missions included protecting the aircraft carriers during Operation Deny Flight as part of maintaining the no-fly zone over Bosnia .

Accidents & misfortunes

Damage to the bomb of an F / A-18

In addition to accidents that happen more frequently on warships (including ground contact, minor collisions and the outbreak of a local fire within the hull or superstructure), an accident on board the Reeves was quite unusual. On October 30, 1989, the ship was sailing the Indian Ocean south of Diego Garcia when a McDonnell Douglas F / A-18 Hornet accidentally dropped a 500-pound free-fall bomb on the ship. This hit the Reeves at the bow, lit a fire, knocked a two-meter hole in the deck and injured five sailors.

The Worden also had to accept friendly fire . During the Vietnam War on April 16, 1972, an anti-radar missile AGM-45 Shrike accidentally fired from US aircraft hit the ship; one seaman was killed and nine others seriously wounded.

literature

• Norman Friedman: US Cruisers: An Illustrated Design History ; 1985 at Weidenfeld Military, ISBN 0-85368-651-3

Web links

Commons : Leahy class  - collection of images, videos, and audio files

• Leahy class on globalsecurity.org (English)

Footnotes

1. ↑ ^{a b} from: Terzibaschitsch: Seemacht USA, Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn, ISBN 3-86047-576-2 , page 380

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on October 5, 2006 .