Osprey NVG 278 US Navy Cold War Guided Missile Cruisers By Mark Stille True Pdf.pdf

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US NAVY COLD WAR
GUIDED MISSILE
CRUISERS
MARK STILLE
ILLUSTRATED BY ADAM TOOBY
NEW VANGUARD 278
US NAVY COLD WAR
GUIDED MISSILE CRUISERS
MARK STILLE
ILLUSTRATED BY ADAM TOOBY
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
USN MISSILE CRUISER DEVELOPMENT
USN MISSILE CRUISER WEAPONS
USN MISSILE CRUISERS AT WAR
USN MISSILE CRUISERS
• Boston Class
• Galveston Class
• Providence Class
• Albany Class
• Leahy Class
• Belknap Class
4
5
10
13
18
THE NUCLEAR CRUISERS
•
Long Beach
•
Bainbridge
•
Truxtun
• California Class
• Virginia Class
32
ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
44
47
48
US NAVY COLD WAR GUIDED
MISSILE CRUISERS
INTRODUCTION
Faced with an increasingly formidable air threat from the Soviet Union in the
early days of the Cold War, and with the recent memory of the
kamikaze
threat
from World War II, the United States Navy (USN) placed a great priority on
developing air defense missiles and getting them to sea to protect the fleet.
The first air defense missiles, the long-range Talos and the medium-range
Terrier, were large weapons and needed a large ship to carry them and their
sensors. The quickest solution was to take some of the many cruisers built
during World War II and convert them into missile cruisers. The result was a
mix of five converted heavy and six converted light cruisers, which entered
service in 1955 and served until 1980. These were the largest non-carrier
combatants in the USN during most of this period. Aside from providing
long-range fleet air defense, these ships were often used as fleet flagships.
They served in the front lines of the Cold War and most saw combat service
in Vietnam. To screen the USN’s carrier battle groups, several other classes of
missile combatants were developed. These included two large classes of so-
Gridley
seen underway
c.
1975.
The ship was active all over
the globe in what was a typical
career for a Leahy-class cruiser
during the Cold War.
Gridley
made six Vietnam deployments,
responded to a crisis off Korea
in 1971, covered the evacuation
of Vietnam and took part in
the recapture of the American
merchant ship
Mayaguez
in
1975, operated in the Indian
Ocean 1980–81, responded to
the Libyan crisis in 1987, and
took part in the First Gulf War.
(Naval History and
Heritage Command)
4
called guided missile frigates, which were later reclassified as guided missile
cruisers. Complementing the 29 conventionally powered missile cruisers was
a much smaller number of nuclear-powered cruisers. These were so expensive
that only nine were built, including
Long Beach,
the USN’s first and only
ship designed and built as a guided missile cruiser. Until replaced by the
Ticonderoga and Burke classes of Aegis ships, the USN’s 38 missile cruisers
were the most capable and important surface combatants in the fleet and
served all over the globe during the Cold War.
USN MISSILE CRUISER DEVELOPMENT
At the end of World War II, the aircraft carrier emerged as pre-eminent in
the USN. The speed and firepower of American cruisers allowed them to
play a major role during the war, but with the carrier firmly established as
the offensive core of the fleet, the USN’s cruisers were given a clear focus of
protecting the carriers. Since few navies had a significant ocean-going surface
fleet that could threaten American carriers, the primary duty of the USN’s
cruisers became the protection of the carrier against air attack.
Since guns no longer had the range to defend against bombers with
stand-off missiles, and because greater accuracy was needed against high-
speed threats, the USN’s attention turned to the development of a whole
new family of air defense missiles. Large guns became an afterthought on
guided missile cruisers, to the point that some USN missile cruisers were
designed without any guns at all. This proved too revolutionary and guns
were eventually fitted on all missile cruisers; the converted missile cruisers
retained some of their large guns that proved useful in Korea and Vietnam in
shore bombardment roles. After it was obvious that some guns were required
for self-defense, the USN’s new-build missile cruisers were equipped with
dual-purpose 5-inch guns for protection against air and surface attack and
to allow them to perform in a gunfire support role.
The USN needed large ships to carry the new family of air defense missiles
and all their associated electronics. Carriers had the large volume needed to
carry these air defense missile
systems, but the USN preferred
to devote the available space
on these ships to carrying a
large air group. Battleships
were potential platforms,
but these were being retired
from the active fleet. Since
destroyers were too small
to carry the first-generation
medium and long-range
missile systems, this left the
cruiser as the best platform for
missile defense ships. The USN
had many light and heavy
cruisers built during the war
that were no longer needed as
gun platforms, so the decision
The USN practiced multi-
layered missile defenses
during major fleet exercises
like that shown here in
June 1975.
Chicago
in the
foreground was equipped with
the long-range Talos missile
system and
Sterett
carried the
medium-range Terrier system.
In the background is
Fort Fisher
(LSD-40). (Naval History and
Heritage Command)
5

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