USS California (CGN-36)

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USS California (DLG-36 / CG-36) 1986
career USN Jack
Ordered: June 13, 1968
Keel laying: January 23, 1970
Launch: 22nd September 1971
Commissioning: February 16, 1974
Decommissioned: July 9, 1999
Fate: nuclear recycling
Technical specifications
Displacement : 10,150 tons
Length: 181.7 m
Width: 18.6 m
Draft: 9.6 m
Drive: 2 nuclear reactors, 2 propellers
Speed: 30+ kn
Crew: 28 officers, 512 men

The USS California (DLGN-36 / CGN-36) was a nuclear cruiser and the lead ship of the California class .

history

The California was laid down at Newport News Shipbuilding in 1970 and entered service with the US Navy in 1974. The ship, also known as the Golden Grizzly , was on its first mission from 1976 to 77 with the 6th fleet in the Mediterranean. In the summer of 1977, the ship took part in the parade for the 25th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's throne in Portsmouth .

At the end of 1979, the California interrupted a voyage in the Mediterranean and sailed with a task force consisting only of nuclear ships ( USS Nimitz (CVN-68) and USS Texas (CGN-39) ) into the Persian Gulf, where the group stayed during the hostage-taking from Tehran until May 1980 stayed.

From April 1981, the California carried out maneuvers in the Indian Ocean , which it approached from the west. She later left him to head east and thus carried out a circumnavigation of the world, the first of a nuclear-powered warship since Operation Sea Orbit in 1964. After an overhaul, the California moved her home port from 1983 to the Pacific. After trips with the USS Constellation (CV-64) in the Indian Ocean, the ship circled the globe again in 1987. The following year the California sailed the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf, where in December she protected the last convoy as part of Operation Earnest Will .

In 1990 there was another overhaul and refill of the reactor, which took place in the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard . This lasted until early 1993, so that she spent the entire Second Gulf War in the shipyard. The California's first voyage after the overhaul took place in June 1994 and took her to the Western Pacific with the USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) for exercises with the Self-Defense Forces and the Navy of the Republic of Korea. After another brief overhaul, she served one more time in the Western Pacific. This time with the USS Carl Vinson , participating in Operation Southern Watch and Operation Desert Strike . The last voyage of the California took place from January 1998, it served to combat drug smuggling in the Eastern Pacific and the Caribbean.

The ship was decommissioned on August 28, 1998 and in 2001 the Ship-Submarine Recycling Program in the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard . This made it the last nuclear cruiser in the US Navy to be decommissioned.

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