__NOTOC__ In the early 1960s, the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

was the world's first to have

nuclear-powered Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...

cruiser A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several operational roles from search-and-destroy to ocean escort to sea ...

s as part of its fleet. The first such ship was . Commissioned in late summer 1961, she was the world's first nuclear-powered surface combatant. She was followed a year later by . While ''Long Beach'' was a 'true cruiser', meaning she was designed and built as a cruiser, ''Bainbridge'' began life as a

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and maneuvera ...

, though at that time the Navy was using the hull code "DLGN" for " destroyer leader,

guided missile A missile is an airborne ranged weapon capable of Propulsion, self-propelled flight aided usually by a propellant, jet engine or rocket motor. Historically, 'missile' referred to any projectile that is thrown, shot or propelled towards a targ ...

, nuclear". This was prior to the enactment of the 1975 ship reclassification plan, in which frigates (DLG/DLGN), which were essentially large destroyers, were reclassified as cruisers, so that the US Navy's numbers would compete with those of the

Soviet Navy The Soviet Navy was the naval warfare Military, uniform service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy made up a large part of the Soviet Union's strategic planning in the event of a conflict with t ...

. ''Long Beach'', the largest of all the nuclear cruisers, was equipped with a C1W cruiser reactor, while all the others were equipped with D2G destroyer reactors. In the summer of 1964, ''Long Beach'' and ''Bainbridge'' would meet up with , the Navy's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, to form Task Force One, an all-nuclear-powered naval unit. They would commence Operation Sea Orbit, in which they circumnavigated the globe without refuelling. It was a remarkable achievement for its time, a naval group capable of sailing over in just 65 days, without replenishment. In the spring of 1967 came the Navy's third nuclear-powered cruiser, (though initially labeled a frigate), , a heavily modified design based on the cruiser. ''Truxtun'' would be followed by the two-ship , beginning with in February 1974 and in January 1975. The US Navy was the only fleet in the world with nuclear-powered cruisers until 1974 when the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

would begin construction on their own nuclear battlecruiser, the Soviet battlecruiser ''Kirov'',

lead ship The lead ship, name ship, or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships that are all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable to naval ships and large civilian vessels. Large ships are very comple ...

of the . The Soviets would build four in total, between 1974 and 1998. The last nuclear-powered cruisers the US produced were the four-ship . was commissioned in 1976, followed by in 1977, in 1978, and finally in 1980. A fifth ''Virginia'' class vessel was initially planned but then cancelled. Ultimately, these nuclear-powered cruisers would prove to be too costly to maintain, and they would all be retired between 1993 and 1999. The US Navy currently has the largest fleet of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and nuclear-powered

submarines A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or info ...

List of United States Navy nuclear-powered cruisers

File:USS Long Beach (CGN-9) underway at sea, circa in the 1960s.jpg, USS ''Long Beach''
(CGN-9) File:USS Bainbridge (CGN-25) underway in the Suez Canal on 27 February 1992.jpg, USS ''Bainbridge''
(CGN-25) File:USS Truxtun (DLGN-35) underway off Point Loma, California (USA), circa in the 1970s.jpg, USS ''Truxtun''
(DLGN-35) File:USS California (CGN-36).JPG, USS ''California''
(CGN-36) File:USS Virginia (CGN-38) elevated starboard view.jpg, USS ''Virginia''
(CGN-38) File:USS Arkansas (CGN-41) underway, circa in the early 1980s.jpg, USS ''Arkansas''
(CGN-41)

References

External links

{{US Navy navbox, state=collapsed Ships of the United States Navy *

List of United States Navy nuclear-powered cruisers

See also

References

External links