''Leahy''-class cruisers were a class of

guided-missile 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 built for 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 ...

. They were originally designated as Destroyer Leaders (DLG), but in the 1975 cruiser realignment they were reclassified as guided-missile cruisers (CG). They were a new "double-ender" class fitted with

Terrier Terrier () is a Dog type, type of dog originally bred to hunt vermin. A terrier is a dog of any one of many Dog breed, breeds or landraces of the terrier Dog type, type, which are typically small, wiry, Gameness, game, and fearless. There are fi ...

(later Standard ER) missile launchers fore and aft, and the first and only frigate class designed without a main gun battery for shore bombardment or ship-vs.-ship engagements—the gun armament was reduced in order to carry a larger missile load. One of the principal missions of these ships, like their predecessors the , was to form part of the anti-air and antisubmarine screen for carrier task forces, while also controlling aircraft from the carrier by providing vectors to assigned targets. The ships carried over the propulsion plant of the ''Farragut'' class, fitted into a longer hull designed with a knuckled “hurricane” bow that reduced plunging in a rough sea, thus keeping the forecastle dry as needed to operate the forward missile launcher. Other features included an expanded electrical plant and increased endurance. A major design innovation was the use of " macks"—combined masts and stacks—on which the radars could be mounted without smoke interference.

Description

Designed under project SCB 172, the first three ships were constructed at

Bath Iron Works Bath Iron Works (BIW) is a major United States shipyard located on the Kennebec River in Bath, Maine, founded in 1884 as Bath Iron Works, Limited. Since 1995, Bath Iron Works has been a subsidiary of General Dynamics, one of the world's largest ...

, the next two at New York Shipbuilding Corp, and the rest at Puget Sound Bridge and Dry Dock Company, Todd Shipyards, San Pedro, CA,

San Francisco Naval Shipyard The Hunters Point Naval Shipyard was a United States Navy shipyard in San Francisco, California, located on of waterfront at Hunters Point in the southeast corner of the city. Originally, Hunters Point was a commercial shipyard established i ...

and

Puget Sound Naval Shipyard Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, officially Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility (PSNS & IMF), is a United States Navy shipyard covering 179 acres (0.7 km2) on Puget Sound at Bremerton, Washington in uninterrupted ...

. Modernizations were accomplished between 1967 and 1972 under SCB 244, upgrading air warfare capabilities. Nearly all modernizations were completed at

, but ''Leahy'' received the modernization at

Philadelphia Naval Shipyard The Philadelphia Naval Shipyard was the first United States Navy shipyard and was historically important for nearly two centuries. Construction of the original Philadelphia Naval Shipyard began during the American Revolution in 1776 at Front ...

at a cost of $36.1 million. All ''Leahy''-class ships were modernized again in the late 1980s

New Threat Upgrade New Threat Upgrade (NTU) was a United States Navy program to improve and modernize the capability of existing cruisers and destroyers equipped with Terrier and Tartar anti-aircraft systems, keeping them in service longer. The Program was sele ...

program. This program added advanced air search and track radars (

AN/SPS-49 The AN/SPS-49 is a United States Navy two-dimensional, long range air search radar built by Raytheon that can provide contact bearing and range. It is a primary air-search radar for numerous ships in the U.S. fleet and in Spanish Navy, Spain, Poli ...

and AN/SPS-48E), updated targeting radars ( AN/SPG-55), and combat direction systems. The upgrade included massive remodeling of the ship from food service space rehabilitation to a main propulsion system overhaul.CG-16 Leahy class
/ref> Entire systems were removed and replaced, for example the AN/SPS-40 air-search radar was replaced with the

air-search radar. The upgrade was also quite expensive and the ships didn't serve much longer after the modification. For example, USS ''Gridley'' (CG-21) received NTU in 1991 at a cost of $55 million, but was decommissioned in early 1994. The ''Leahy'' class (and near sisters of the ) were taken out of service in the early 1990s as part of the

Clinton Administration Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following his victory over Republican in ...

's desire to reduce defense spending in light of reduced tensions with Russia. The entire class was decommissioned between 1993 and 1995, stricken from the naval register, and transferred to the Maritime Administration (MARAD) for disposal.

USS ''Bainbridge''

USS ''Bainbridge'' (CGN-25) was a

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 ...

development of the ''Leahy''-class. Originally a guided-missile

destroyer leader Destroyer leader (DL) was the United States Navy designation for large destroyers from 9 February 1951 through the early years of the Cold War. United States ships with hull classification symbol DL were officially frigates from 1 January 1955Blac ...

, the class was re-designated

in 1975. As with USS ''Long Beach'' (CGN-9) and USS ''Enterprise'' (CVN-65), ''Bainbridge'' was the only member of its single-ship class. ''Bainbridge'' was largely identical to the ''Leahy'' class except for the replacement of the conventional design's four steam boilers with two

D2G reactor The D2G reactor was a naval reactor used by the United States Navy from 1962 to provide propulsion and electricity generation on warships. Ships powered by the reactor were decommissioned at around the end of the 20th century. The D2G designation ...

s, and related increases in displacement, length and beam. ''Bainbridge''s engineering department carried 7 officers and 156 enlisted men—respectively 3 and 42 more than a contemporary steam-powered vessel. The lessons learned on ''Bainbridge'' were later adapted to the next nuclear-powered ship, and the and classes of nuclear-powered cruiser.

Ships in class

Gallery

File:USS Worden (DLG-18) underway at high speed, in the 1960s.jpg, ''Worden'' prior to modernization in late 1960s or early 1970s. File:USS Gridley (DLG-21) underway at sea, in the 1960s.jpg, ''Gridley'' after modernization, but prior to NTU. File:USS Bainbridge (CGN-25) underway at sea, circa in 1991.jpg, ''Bainbridge'' in 1991

References

External links