![]() She would deploy to the Mediterranean in 1964 before in early 1966 she would undergo her first refueling while also transferring over to her namesake city of Long Beach in California. Dennison, Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet, for exercises off the coasts of U.S. ![]() Upon entering service she was assigned to the Atlantic fleet, being based out of Norfolk, Virginia and she would spend 1961 undergoing her shakedown cruise along with testing her weapon systems, and propulsion systems and this would see her testing her missiles off Puerto Rico in 1962 before finally being sent overseas in January that year when she sailed for Bremerhaven, Germany and following her arrive on the 15th that month for courtesy calls in north European ports, following this she returned to Norfolk in early February before spending her time training off the US East coast and in the Caribbean before in April she joined Atlantic Fleet as flagship for Admiral Robert L. ![]() USS Long Beach was ordered on October 15th, 1956, she was originally ordered under the name USS Brooklyn however this was quickly changed to her name of Long Beach, she was laid down on December 2nd, 1957 and during her time being built she would have her classification changed twice as she was originally given the hull number of CLGN-160 however even before she was laid down she had her hull number changed to CGN-160 so she still kept the same number on the hull itself however after being laid down she was once more and for the final time given another hull number of CGN-9 on July 1st, 1958 and was launched on July 14th, 1959 and in early September of 1961 she was commissioned, during her construction it was found that sabotage had occurred as anti-mine (degaussing) electrical cables were found to have been intentionally cut in three places before she entered service and by the time of her commissioning it was reported to have cost $320 million (around $2.77 billion today), which was over budget from earlier estimates of $250 million. USS Long Beach (CLGN-160/CGN-160/CGN-9) is the single vessel of the Long Beach class nuclear powered guided missile cruiser built by the USN during the late 1950's and into the early 1960's, most recognizable by her large and blocky superstructure she can be considered as the last true cruiser of the US Navy as ever since then US cruiser classes have normally been based on and/or are enlarged versions of destroyer hulls with the exception of the Albany class guided missile cruisers however they were conversions from older cruisers.Īs a US designed guided missile cruiser designed during the 1950's her design in terms of her armament was very heavily missile based with her original armament not even including a single gun prior to commissioning and only seeing 2 5-inch/38 cal Mark 30 naval guns mounted both amidship with one placed starboard and one on the port side of the vessel, her missile armament consisted of originally 2 different missile launchers with both being SAM launchers with the vessel having 2 Mark 10 launchers using RIM-8 Talos missiles in super firing positions at the front of the vessel as well as having 1 Mark 12 launcher which used the RIM-2 Terrier missile which was located at the rear of the vessel, she also came with 1 8-cell RUR-5 ASROC launcher also amidship as well as having 2 triple 12.75 inch (324mm) torpedo tubes for a total of 6 torpedo tubes, over time however she would see all her missile systems replaced with more modern systems with the Talos missiles being replaced with RIM-67 missile and the rear Mark 12 launcher had been replaced with 2 Quad Mark 141 ASM launchers with RGM-84 Harpoon anti ship missiles which were at first located where the Mark 12 mount once was until the ship saw the installation of the 2 Quad Mark 143 armored box launchers using BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles with the harpoon missiles then being relocated to the sides of the rear mast, additionally she also had 2 20mm Mark 15 Phalanx CIWS. ![]()
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