USS Long Beach (CGN-9)

The USS Long Beach
Overview
Order	October 15, 1956
Keel laying	2nd December 1957
Launch	July 14, 1959
1. Period of service
Commissioning	September 9, 1961
Decommissioning	May 1, 1995
Whereabouts	Superstructures removed, waiting to be dismantled
Technical specifications
displacement	15,540 tons
length	220 meters
width	21.8 meters
Draft	9.3 meters
crew	1160 men, later 825
drive	Nuclear ( Reactor C1W ), two waves (80,000 wPS)
speed	30+ knots (56+ km / h)
Range	90,000 nm at 30 kn, 360,000 nm at 20 kn
Armament	- Guns: 2 × 5 " - Air defense: Talos , Terrier , later CIWS - Underground defense: ASROC , torpedo starter - Retrofitted: Harpoon , Tomahawk
building-costs	332.9 million US dollars ( FY 1957)

USS Long Beach (CGN-160 / CLGN-160 / CGN-9) is the lead ship and at the same time the only unit of the Long Beach class . The USS Long Beach was the first class of cruiser completely redesigned and built after World War II , being a guided missile cruiser . In addition, she was the world's first nuclear-powered surface warship and the first of the nuclear cruiser class .

Type of use and classification

The Long Beach was planned as a classic cruiser, i.e. a ship that can and should operate without a fleet. It was originally designed as a nuclear weapon carrier (intercontinental ballistic missiles of the Polaris type ). For such a ship, which has the task of serving alone and unnoticed as a mobile launch pad, the armament for self-defense is particularly important, which is why the ship was equipped with powerful air defense weapons. Originally, an anti-ship weapon was also planned when it was commissioned. With the change of armament, however, the purpose of Long Beach also changed . Now that she was no longer carrying offensive weapons, she was intended as an escort ship for carrier combat groups . In particular, it should be used in combat groups that were only nuclear-powered in order to be able to fully exploit the advantages of this drive.

Only with the anti-ship guided missile AGM-84 Harpoon and later the cruise missile BGM-109 Tomahawk did the Long Beach regain its offensive capacity, which also allowed sole operations.

technology

Armament

USS Long Beach during target practice in October 1961

The Long Beach was originally planned as a pure rocket ship and was also put into service as such. Only after the then US President John F. Kennedy had inspected the ship in April 1962, two 5-inch (127 millimeter) guns were installed amidships on his orders . The Mark 30 gun series was chosen (a version of the 5-inch 38-caliber gun that was used, among other things, on the Fletcher class ), while the Mark 56 served as the fire control system. These systems, which were already outdated at the time, had to be used , as the further developed combined system Mk 42 would have required major modifications on and in the fuselage. From 1983, Long Beach also had two CIWS close- range defense systems amidships against incoming missiles.

Furthermore, RIM-8 Talos missiles were installed as air defense weapons . These anti-aircraft missiles developed for the Navy had a maximum range of 80 nautical miles (nm) or 148 kilometers. In addition, medium-range missiles of the type RIM-2 Terrier with a range of 30 nautical miles (55 kilometers) were also used for air defense . 46 Talos missiles and 120 Terriers were stored in the magazine .

For submarine defense was ASROC system selected. These missiles carried an anti-submarine torpedo or a Mk 17 nuclear depth charge over a distance of up to 10,000 yards (9.1 kilometers) to the target, where they were released upon impact. The torpedo headed for its target independently. A total of 24 rockets for the ASROC were on board. There were also two triple torpedo launchers that fired Mark 46 torpedoes.

Around 1979 the Talos long-range missiles were removed and instead two Mk 141 launchers for AGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship guided weapons were retrofitted. There was no reserve for reloading these, only eight missiles were carried in the tubes of the system. The space that was vacated after the Talos system was removed, the former warehouse, has been converted into fitness rooms and rooms for a bandage staff.

An SH-2 Sea Sprite lands on Long Beach

Since 1985, which was Long Beach also with two Armored Box Launchers à four BGM-109 Tomahawk - cruise missiles equipped. A tomahawk was first shot down on June 30, 1986. During an exercise in the northern Pacific, the Long Beach fired a missile at a target in the Aleutian Islands, 500 nautical miles away, and destroyed it.

Instead of guns and the submarine defense system ASROC should Long Beach originally cruise missiles of the type SSM-N-8A Regulus and launchers for intercontinental ballistic missiles of the type UGM-27 Polaris carry.

There is a helicopter landing deck on the aft ship , but there is no hangar to permanently carry a helicopter.

drive

The Long Beach had two nuclear reactors of the type Westinghouse C1W , steam for two together 80,000 PS generated payable turbines. Each turbine drove a shaft. They allowed the ship a top speed of over 30 knots and a long reach without the move would fuel bunkered must be. The reactors were filled with new fuel in 1966 at Newport News Shipbuilding , in 1972 in the Mare Island Naval Shipyard and between 1980 and 1983 at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard .

In addition, the Long Beach had a diesel engine as an emergency drive, with which it could make short trips in the event of a failure of the reactors.

hull

Long Beach directly from above - the long, slender hull is easy to see

The hull is relatively long at 220 meters, but the width at 22 meters is very small. This results in the traditional cruiser hull (length: width ratio 10: 1). The Long Beach was the last ship that was planned as a cruiser. Were built later and said units cruiser reclassified destroyer leader (Destroyer Leader Guided Missile, DLG) or reclassified guided missile destroyer (Destroyer Guided Missile, DDG): Leahy class , Bainbridge class , Belknap class , Truxtun class , California-class , Virginia Class , Ticonderoga class . The great length resulted from the original plan to store ICBMs amidships.

Also noticeable were the superstructures that stretched almost the entire length of the ship to the stern, where there was only a helicopter landing pad . This length is due to the large number of surface-to-air missiles that should find space in the magazines of the Long Beach (the 120 Terrier-SAMs were in front, while the 46 Talos-SAMs were in the aft). The striking design of the superstructure resulted from the surface antennas of the radar system SPS-32/33, which was otherwise only used on the USS Enterprise (CVN-65) . As a result, the Long Beach, apart from the aircraft carriers, had the highest bridge of all ships in the US Navy when it was commissioned. This construction was only possible because of the large quantities of aluminum alloys used, which were lighter than steel . In total, the Long Beach contained around 450 tons of aluminum, which is why it received the Alcoa call signal (abbreviation for the Aluminum Company of America ).

Sensors

The Long Beach was awarded the SCANFAR radar system from Hughes put into service, a forerunner of today's Aegis combat system . This system consisted of the subsystems AN / SPS-32 and AN / SPS-33 , whereby the AN / SPS-33 was not installed until 1963/3 due to development delays. The new system had a range of nearly 400 nautical miles and could not only determine the distance and direction of a target, but also its altitude. It also shaped the appearance of the ship, as the radar system did not require any of the rotating conventional antennas, but rather large, bare surface antennas on the superstructure.

The US Navy only used the SPS-33 on Long Beach and on the aircraft carrier Enterprise . Accordingly, few staff were trained, which led to the problem of finding enough operating staff. In 1968 the air surveillance radar SPS-12 from RCA was installed, but this led to interference with the SPS-33. At the end of 1980 the SPS-12 was dismantled again. During the long shipyard layover from 1981 to 1983, the ship was finally equipped with the SPS-48 from ITT-Gilfillan , a 3D radar for altitude information. It also received the SPS-49 from Raytheon , a radar for determining range and azimuth (2D). This had conventional, rotating antennas, which were easier to maintain than the fixed mirrors of the SPS-32/33. There were no personnel problems with this system. Compared to the SPS-32/33, it also had a higher resolution and thus accuracy, but only over the much smaller range of 240 nautical miles.

The SPS-10 was on board as a navigation radar from the start.

The SQS-23, an active search and attack sonar with a range of over 10,000 yards (approx. 5 nautical miles), was installed as a sonar device for anti-submarine defense. In the early 1980s it was replaced by an SQQ-23, basically an improved SQS-23, but the coordination with the sonar computers was improved. The SQQ-23 of Long Beach had, in contrast to other ships of the Navy equipped with SQQ-23, only one sonodome . This left an approximately 60 ° wide area behind the ship virtually blind.

history

Construction and construction

The keel of Long Beach in the Fore River Shipyard, Quincy, Massachusetts, 1957

Since the Long Beach was the first newly developed cruiser after the Second World War, the US Navy had a hard time with the identification after ordering the ship on October 15, 1956. First the identification CLGN-160 was chosen (Cruiser / Light / Guided-Missile / Nuclear Powered; German: Light guided missile cruiser , nuclear powered). On December 6, the for dropped Light / easily standing L gone, the number 160 has been retained for the time being. On July 1, 1957, however, the ship was included in the new classification of the guided missile cruisers (CG = Cruiser, Guided-Missile ) as number 9 and received the classification CGN-9. USS Brooklyn was chosen as the name of the ship , but was soon changed again.

The keel was laid on December 2, 1957 at Bethlehem Steel at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy , Massachusetts . The launch took place on July 14, 1959. The Long Beach was baptized by the wife of the California Congressman Craig Hosmer . The commissioning took place on September 9, 1961.

testing

The USS Long Beach, the world's first nuclear-powered surface warship , was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet. Their first homeport was Norfolk , Virginia . Between October 2 and December 16, 1961, she completed intensive tests of her weapons and propulsion system. The effectiveness of the nuclear drive was already evident.

Between December 28, 1961 and January 6, 1962, it carried out missile function tests off Puerto Rico , after which it crossed the Atlantic towards Bremerhaven and made fleet visits to European ports.

Back in Norfolk, the ship drove further exercises off the east coast of the USA and in the Caribbean from February 7th . From April 10, 1962, Long Beach practiced with the Atlantic Fleet off North Carolina and Virginia , where she was the flagship of Admiral Robert Dennison , the then commander of the Atlantic Fleet. John F. Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson were on board for these maneuvers .

Use in Europe

Nuclear Task Force One (Bainbridge, Long Beach, Enterprise)

During a lay in the shipyard that lasted until 1963, the SPS-33 radar and the 12.7 cm guns were installed. Then the cruiser's first mission took place, which took the Long Beach to the Mediterranean from August 6 to September 20, 1963 , where she visited ports in Spain, France, Italy and Turkey. After further exercises on the east coast, the Long Beach ran out on April 28, 1964 for her second voyage into the Mediterranean, where she made the first nuclear-powered aircraft with the Enterprise, the USS Bainbridge (DLGN-25) and the USS Seawolf (SSN-575) Task Force of the World formed. From 31 July 1964, the association joined, now without the submarine, as Nuclear Task Force One , the Operation Sea Orbit on where the ships without intermediate supply orbited the globe in 58 days. During this time the association drove 30,000 nautical miles from Gibraltar at an average speed of 26 knots. The destination was the east coast of the USA.

After the first overhaul in the Newport News Shipbuildings , the ship received new fuel rods for the first time after having traveled over 160,000 nautical miles (February 1966). After the shipyard lay berth, the ship was assigned to the Pacific Fleet, her new home port was Long Beach in California , after which she is named.

Use in the Vietnam War

From there she ran out on November 7, 1966 for Vietnam , where she took part in the Vietnam War . Until 1975, six missions followed in Vietnam, where the Long Beach was mostly used in the Gulf of Tonkin for radar surveillance, as well as to control aircraft and to rescue downed pilots (PIRAZ = positive identification and radar advisory zone). Part of each of these trips was a visit to the US naval base in Subic Bay in the Philippines . The second overhaul also took place between operations three and four in 1970 and 1971.

During the second voyage an event happened that would go down in the annals of the US Navy: In 1968 the Long Beach shot down two North Vietnamese MiGs with her Talos -SAM without them even noticing the location and the fire. This was the first time that enemy aircraft were shot down by a US Navy ship using missiles.

Later missions

Concept study for the conversion of Long Beach into a Strike Cruiser (CSGN)

After the sixth voyage, the Long Beach was based in San Diego and from there drove three times to the Western Pacific and the Indian Ocean until 1978 , where it carried out large-scale maneuvers with the Australian and New Zealand navies in 1977. During this time she called at numerous ports alongside the USS Enterprise and the USS Truxtun (CGN-35) .

From January to April 1979, after plans for a large-scale conversion to a Strike Cruiser (CSGN) had failed due to cost-saving measures, a mid-life conversion followed, i.e. a value maintenance program after around 20 years of service in which weapons and tracking systems were exchanged. After this first phase of the conversion, the ship took part in two maneuvers of the Canadian Navy in the Pacific and ran back to Vietnam in 1980, where it took over 118 boat people . Immediately afterwards, the second phase of the conversion followed, which lasted until March 13, 1983 and brought further changes to the radar and weapon systems.

The Long Beach , together with the battleship New Jersey, forms the core of the Battleship Group Romeo, 1986

During further missions in the Western Pacific and the Indian Ocean, the Long Beach was not only used as part of a carrier combat group in 1986, but also operated with the USS New Jersey (BB-62) in the framework of a surface action group (for example: surface combat group) so called Battleship Group Romeo .

From May 28, 1991, the Long Beach was used in support of Operation Desert Storm . After another overhaul in 1992, the ship was until its decommissioning in so-called Underway Counter Narcotic Patrols used in the Caribbean, so to combat drug - trafficking .

Whereabouts

The USS Long Beach was decommissioned on May 1, 1995. The radioactive parts were removed from the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard as part of the Ship-Submarine Recycling Program . On July 13, 2012, the hull was sold at auction; the buyer won seven million pounds of steel, aluminum and copper in dismantling the ship .

Home ports

• 1961-1966: Norfolk , Virginia
• 1966-1975: Long Beach , California
• 1975-1995: San Diego , California
• Since then: Bremerton , Washington

Commanders

Long Beach had the highest bridge in the US Navy when it was commissioned - apart from aircraft carriers

• Sep. 9, 1961 - September 11, 1962: Captain EP Wilkinson
• September 11, 1962 - August 23, 1966: Captain FH Price
• Aug. 23, 1966 - June 15, 1968: Captain KC Wallace
• Jun. 15, 1968 - September 25, 1972: Captain William A. Spencer
• September 25, 1972 - October 24, 1975: Captain FR Fahland
• Oct. 24, 1975 - July 18, 1978: Captain Harry C. Schrader
• July 18, 1978 - February 1982: Captain EB Bossard
• February 1982–1985: Captain F. Triggs
• February 1985 - September 1987: Captain MJ Less
• September 1987 - November 1990: Captain JC Pollock, III
• November 1990 - April 1993: Captain WR Burns, JR.
• April 1993 - July 1994: Captain KP Bersticker

literature

• Wilhelm M. Donko: The nuclear cruisers of the US Navy. An important component of modern sea power . Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Koblenz 1987, ISBN 3-7637-5836-4 (defense technology in the picture).
• Stefan Terzibaschitsch : The cruisers of the US Navy. From the Omaha class to Long Beach . Bechtermünz Verlag, Augsburg 1997, ISBN 3-86047-588-6 .

Web links

Commons : USS Long Beach (CGN-9)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• History of the USS Long Beach (CGN-9) in the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (English)
• Side former crew members (English)
• USS Long Beach on navsource.org (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Marjorie Censer: Historic nuclear cruiser headed to scrap heap . In: The Washington Post , September 18, 2012. Retrieved September 16, 2015. 

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on October 28, 2005 .