Nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser USS Long Beach (CGN-9), 1970: Strike Hard, Strike Home

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USS_Long_Beach_(CGN-9)_underway_off_Oahu_on_9_May_1973
USS_Long_Beach_(CGN-9)_underway_off_Oahu_on_9_May_19731920×1440 334 KB

USS Long Beach (CGN-9) underway off Oahu, Hawaii (USA), 9 May 1973 (source: File:USS Long Beach (CGN-9) underway off Oahu on 9 May 1973.jpg - Wikimedia Commons)

TL;DR: large nuclear-powered cruiser with lots of radars and SAMs but minimal gun armament.

The USS Long Beach (CGN-9) was a nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser and the world’s first nuclear-powered surface combatant. She was also the first warship to carry a phased array radar and the first warship designed from keel-up to use missiles as its primary armament. She was generally a technical success, and while nuclear propulsion had mostly died out among surface warships, the advanced radars and missiles she pioneered eventually led to the modern Aegis Combat System.

This suggestion is for her 1970 configuration. She is quite deficient in guns, having only two 5-inch/38-calibre Mark 12s (and their placement means that most of the time only one can be used). However, she makes up for that deficiency in missiles, mounting a RIM-8 Talos twin-launcher (52 missiles) and two RIM-2 Terrier twin-launchers (120 missiles). Despite being surface-to-air missiles, both were technically capable of attacking surface warships (especially the Talos, where primary and secondary sources indicate that it was effective in this role). Additionally, she had an ASROC launcher and 6 torpedo tubes for anti-submarine warfare. She also carried numerous radars, most notably the AN/SPS-32 and AN/SPS-33 SCANFAR phased array radars on her boxy superstructure, along with several other search radars and fire control radars that allow two Talos and four Terrier missiles to be guided simultaneously. As a post-war cruiser, she lacked armour but had a reasonable crew size of over 1100.

War Thunder already has a few missile ships, most of them also carrying SAMs. Still, the Long Beach would be much more effective in anti-air than any other ship in-game right now (her closest equivalent currently in-game would be the Bravy, which is still leagues behind her except in gun armament). While flying aircraft in naval battles is already pretty much impossible, the incredible range of the Terrier and Talos would mean that planes can be targeted wherever they are on the map unless they utilise terrain cover. Her anti-ship capability is more interesting. The Terrier and Talos both have decent explosive mass (the Talos warhead contains about 102 kg of RDX/TNT, greater than even battleship shells), but they’re still SAMs without any armour-piercing bodies, so anything with more than roughly 80 mm of armour would be invulnerable to them. The limited number of missiles also prevents her from slowly wearing down the crew count of larger vessels (although being able to guide up to 6 missiles simultaneously, her salvo is comparable to that of light cruisers). Overall, she would be a unique ship in War Thunder’s naval environment.

History

After World War II, two trends began to emerge within the US Navy: the replacement of guns with missiles as the main offensive armament and the replacement of conventional power with nuclear power for propulsion, and the USS Long Beach was to be where these two trends converged. Guns were rapidly becoming obsolete as anti-aircraft weapons with the development of high-performance jet aircraft, so it was obvious that future ships would use missiles in this role. While some World War II heavy cruisers were converted to carry SAMs, the ultimate goal was to have a new air defence cruiser design that used missiles as its main and only armament. However, there were still serious concerns about the reliability of missiles and the possibility that the lack of guns would lead to such a ship being defenceless against even the weakest surface targets. Therefore, the numerous design iterations of the Long Beach still featured cannons. The use of nuclear power appeared to be mostly undisputed. Nuclear power would allow for immensely greater endurance, and with plans for a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier (the USS Enterprise) already on the drawing board, nuclear-powered escorts were needed to protect her (conventionally powered ships could not maintain high speeds for long periods of time like nuclear-powered ships due to fuel consumption).

The USS Long Beach was originally designated CLGN-160, which was changed to CGN-160 in early 1957, and again changed to CGN-9 on 1 July 1957. She was laid down on 2 December 1957, launched on 14 July 1959, and commissioned on 9 September 1961 under the command of Captain Eugene Parks Wilkinson, who was also the first commander of USS Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered submarine. At the time of her commissioning, she lacked the AN/SPS-33 radars and the 5-inch guns, both of which were only fitted later in her career (the guns were fitted in 1962-63, allegedly under President Kennedy’s orders). Her armament continued to change throughout her service. In 1968 she was fitted with a conventional radar, the AN/SPS-12. The main reason was that the SCANFAR arrays initially lacked an IFF capability, which was only added in the 1970 refit. It’s also said that there were insufficient technicians to maintain the arrays, as they were unique to Long Beach and Enterprise, so the Navy didn’t establish an ET school for them. Roughly around 1979 to 1980, the Talos systems were removed and the Terriers were replaced with Standard SM-2ER Missiles. The SCANFAR radars were removed and replaced by newer systems like the AN/SPS-48. Two quadruple Harpoon missile launchers and two Phalanx CIWS were also installed. In 1985, Armored Box Launchers for the Tomahawk missile were installed where the Talos missiles previously were.

As the world’s first nuclear-powered surface warship, the USS Long Beach went through extensive testing after commissioning. Her shakedown cruiser was from 2 October to 16 December 1961, during which her weapons and propulsion systems were tested, and from 28 December to 6 January 1962 she conducted further tests for her missiles. After returning to Norfolk on 7 February she briefly trained off the east coast and in the Caribbean before joining Atlantic Fleet exercises off North Carolina and Virginia as flagship for Admiral Robert H. Dennison, Commander in Chief of the Atlantic Fleet, on 10 April and was reviewed by President John F. Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. After some refits and other actions, she joined Operation Sea Orbit from 31 July 1964 to 3 October 1964, during which she sailed with USS Bainbridge (DLGN-25) and USS Enterprise (CVAN-65) around the world without refuelling, demonstrating the endurance capabilities of nuclear-powered ships. She was deployed to Vietnam at least twice from 1966 to 1986, during which time she shot down two MiG-21s with her RIM-8 Talos missiles (the first at 105 km, the second at 98 km) and used her radar to direct fighter aircraft to intercept and destroy many other enemies. She continued to serve in Vietnam until 1972. Her post-Vietnam career is somewhat less well-documented (although cruise books are still available). In 1980 she rescued 107 Vietnamese refugees in the South China Sea. She did participate in Operation Fiery Virgil (the evacuation of personnel from Clark Air Base and U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay during the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo), may have participated in Operation Nimble Archer and Operation Provide Comfort, but probably did not participate in Operation Desert Storm. There were plans to upgrade the USS Long Beach in the 1990s with an Aegis Combat System, but these efforts were abandoned. She was deactivated on 2 July 1994 and eventually sold for scrap, although her hull and reactor compartment still remain in Puget Sound Naval Shipyard due to being radioactive.

Specifications

Where sources conflict, priority is given to data available in the DANFS.

Compliment: 1160
Displacement: 15540 t
Length: 220 m
Beam: 22 m
Draft: 9 m
Max speed: 30 kt (61 km/h)
Propulsion: 2 C1W nuclear reactors, 2 turbines, 2 shafts; 80,000 hp
Armament:

  • 2x 5-inch/38-caliber guns
  • 2x twin-arm Terrier launchers (120 missiles)
    • Terrier missile stats:
      • Range:
        • RIM-2A/B: 19 km
        • RIM-2C/D/E: 32 km
        • RIM-2F: 74 km
      • Max speed:
        • RIM-2A/B: 1.8 Mach
        • RIM-2C/D/E/F?: 2.5 or 3.0 Mach
      • Guidance:
        • RIM-2A/B/C/D: beam riding
        • RIM-2E/F: beam riding + SARH terminal guidance
      • Warhead:
        • RIM-2A/B/C/D/E/F: 99 kg explosive fragmentation (explosive content unknown)
        • RIM-2D (SAM-N-7 BT-3A(N)): 1kT W45 nuclear warhead
  • 1x twin-arm Talos launcher (58 missiles)
    • Talos missile stats:
      • Range:
        • RIM-8A/B: 90 km
        • RIM-8C/D/E/F: 180 km
        • RIM-8G/J: 240 km
        • RGM-8H: unknown
      • Max speed:
        • All: Mach 3
      • Guidance:
        • RIM-8A/C/E/F/G/J: beam riding + SARH terminal guidance
        • RIM-8B/D: beam riding
        • RGM-8H: anti-radiation
      • Warhead:
        • RIM-8A: blast fragmentation, specs unknown
        • RIM-8B/D/E: 5 kT W30 nuclear warhead (optional for E)
        • RIM-8C/E/F/G/J: 221 kg continuous rod HE (102 kg RDX/TNT) (optional for E)
        • RGM-8H: unknown
  • 2x triple Mk 32 torpedo tubes
  • 1x ASROC

Electronics:

  • AN/SPS-32 phased array search radar
  • AN/SPS-33 phased array tracking radar
  • AN/SPS-10 surface search radar
  • AN/SPS-12 air search radar
  • 2x AN/SPG-49 Talos fire control radar (2 fire control channels)
  • 4x AN/SPG-55 Terrier fire control radar (4 fire control channels)
More pictures

USS_Enterprise_(CVAN-65),USS_Long_Beach(CGN-9)and_USS_Bainbridge(DLGN-25)_underway_in_the_Mediterranean_Sea_during_Operation_Sea_Orbit,_in_1964
USS_Enterprise_(CVAN-65),USS_Long_Beach(CGN-9)and_USS_Bainbridge(DLGN-25)_underway_in_the_Mediterranean_Sea_during_Operation_Sea_Orbit,_in_19641062×786 123 KB

USS Long Beach during the famous Operation Sea Orbit (the first circumnavigation of the world by an all-nuclear surface fleet), sailing between USS Bainbridge (DLGN-25) and USS Enterprise (CVAN-65) (source: File:USS Enterprise (CVAN-65), USS Long Beach (CGN-9) and USS Bainbridge (DLGN-25) underway in the Mediterranean Sea during Operation Sea Orbit, in 1964.jpg - Wikimedia Commons)

Bow_view_of_USS_Long_Beach_(CGN-9),_circa_in_the_1960s
Bow_view_of_USS_Long_Beach_(CGN-9),_circa_in_the_1960s1244×1659 219 KB

Bow view of USS Long Beach, c. 1960s, showing her two twin Terrier launchers and four AN/SPG-55 Terrier guidance radars (source: File:Bow view of USS Long Beach (CGN-9), circa in the 1960s.jpg - Wikimedia Commons)

CGN-9_PIRAZ_MarApr1967
USS Long Beach in 1967, carrying a Sea King helicopter (source: File:CGN-9 PIRAZ MarApr1967.jpg - Wikimedia Commons)

USS_Long_Beach_(CGN-9)returns_a_SH-3A_Sea_King_of_HS-2_to_USS_Hornet(CVS-12),_in_1967
USS_Long_Beach_(CGN-9)returns_a_SH-3A_Sea_King_of_HS-2_to_USS_Hornet(CVS-12),_in_19671374×595 149 KB

“Hello Hornet… here’s your helo”. USS Long Beach returning a Sea King helicopter to USS Hornet (CVS-12) via crane (source: File:USS Long Beach (CGN-9) returns a SH-3A Sea King of HS-2 to USS Hornet (CVS-12), in 1967.jpg - Wikimedia Commons)

USS_Long_Beach_(CGN-9)_firing_a_RIM-2_Terrier'_missile,_circa_in_1966
USS_Long_Beach_(CGN-9)_firing_a_RIM-2_Terrier'_missile,_circa_in_19661181×591 421 KB

USS Long Beach firing a RIM-2 Terrier missile, c. 1966 (source: File:USS Long Beach (CGN-9) firing a RIM-2 Terrier' missile, circa in 1966.jpg - Wikimedia Commons)

USS_Long_Beach_(CGN-9)firing_a_Terrier_missile_in_October_1961(KN-6935)

USS Long Beach firing a RIM-2 Terrier missile in October 1961. Note that the AN/SPS-33 radars and 5-inch guns have not been installed yet (source: File:USS Long Beach (CGN-9) firing a Terrier missile in October 1961 (KN-6935).jpg - Wikimedia Commons)

Sources
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Far from what I know the only vessel with missiles capable (yet not made for) engaging other ships is in the USA tech-tree in form of a premium as the USS Douglas. I wish for more ships with missiles in naval battles.