USS Long Beach

The USS Long Beach is a former battleship belonging to the U.S. Navy.

Details
Long Beach was first laid out to be a smaller frigate, but then she was slated for the mounting of a Regulus nuclear cruise missile or later, four launch tubes for the Polaris missile which would occupy the space taken up by the 5"/38 caliber gun mounts and the ASROC system. Consequently, she was redesigned and expanded to a cruiser hull, allowing for an open space just aft of the bridge "box" to accommodate the Regulus/Polaris missiles. Long Beach was also the last cruiser built with a World War II-era cruiser hull style; later new-build cruisers were actually converted frigates, such as Leahy (DLG-16), Bainbridge (DLGN-25), Belknap (DLG-26), Truxtun (DLGN-35), the California and Virginia classes, or uprated destroyers, like the Ticonderoga-class cruiser that was built on a Spruance-class destroyer hull.

The high box-like superstructure contained the SCANFAR system, consisting of the AN/SPS-32 and AN/SPS-33 phased array radars. One of the reasons Long Beach was a single-ship class was because she was an experimental platform for these radars, which were precursors to the AN/SPY-1 phased array systems later installed on Aegis equipped Ticonderoga-class cruisers and Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. At the time, Long Beach had the highest bridge of any ship smaller than an aircraft carrier.

In addition to steel, Long Beach was built with 450 tons of structural aluminum. Because of this unusually high quantity of aluminum, she was assigned the voice radio call sign "Alcoa". The ship was propelled by two nuclear reactors, one for each propeller shaft, and was capable of speeds in excess of 30 knots (56 km/h). The ship was originally designed with "all-missile" armament, but was fitted with two 5"/38 caliber gun mounts amidships on the orders of President John F. Kennedy.