The Long Beach class cruiser is a single-ship class of the United States Navy. The class is noted as the world's first nuclear-powered surface combatant, and the last cruiser built in the US Navy to a cruiser design; all subsequent cruiser classes were built on scaled-up destroyer hulls, or, in the case of the Albany class, converted from already existent cruisers.
During the design phase, the only ship of the Long Beach class was initially classified as CLGN-160, then reclassified CGN-160 on 6 December 1956. The keel of the USS Long Beach was laid by Bethlehem Steel on 2 December 1957 at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts. On 1 July 1958 she received her third and final classification, this time as CGN-9. The ship was launched on 14 July 1959 and commissioned on 9 September 1961. The Long Beach class under overhaul from 6 October 1980 until 26 March 1983. She was both decommissioned and stricken on 1 May 1995.
| Long Beach class cruiser | |
|---|---|
| Operators: |  United States Navy |
| Preceded by: | Providence class cruiser |
| Succeeded by: | Albany class cruiser |
| Completed: | 1 |
| Active: | 0 |
| Retired: | 1 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Guided missile cruiser |
| Displacement: | 15,025 tons |
| Length: | 721 ft 3 in (219.84 m) |
| Beam: | 73 ft 3 in (22.33 m) |
| Draft: | 31 ft (9.4 m) |
| Propulsion: |
|
| Speed: | 32.5 knots (60 km/h) |
| Complement: | 1,100 officers and enlisted |
| Armament: |
|
