Name Long Beach class Preceded by Providence class Completed 1 | Operators United States Navy Succeeded by Albany class Retired 1 | |
The Long Beach-class cruiser is a single-ship class (sole member, USS Long Beach (CGN-9), ex-CGN-160, ex-CLGN-160) 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 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 was under overhaul from 6 October 1980 until 26 March 1983. She was both decommissioned and stricken on 1 May 1995.