Strike cruiser

For the fictional Strike-class spaceship from the Star Wars franchise, see List of Star Wars capital ships.

Artist conception of Mark I variant (1976 version)
Class overview
Name	Nuclear-powered guided missile strike cruiser (CSGN)
Builders	Never built
Operators	United States Navy
Preceded by	Virginia class
Succeeded by	Ticonderoga class
Cost	$1.371 billion USD - lead ship (est.)
Planned	8–12
General characteristics
Type	Guided-missile cruiser
Displacement	16,035 long tons (16,292 t) (light) 17,284 long tons (17,561 t)(full load)
Length	709 ft 7 in (216.28 m)
Beam	76 ft 5 in (23.29 m)
Draft	22 ft 4 in (6.81 m)
Propulsion	2 pressurized water D2G General Electric nuclear reactors, two shafts, 60,000 shp (45 MW) 2 × 2,000 kW (2,700 hp) diesel generators 6 × ship service turbo generators
Speed	30 knots (56 km/h)+
Range	unlimited
Complement	454 (total)
Sensors & processing systems	AN/SPY-1A multi-function radar AN/SPS-49 air search radar AN/SPS-10F surface search radar AN/SPS-64 navigation radar AN/SPG-62 (x4) fire control radar AN/SQS-53 bow-mounted sonar AN/SLQ-32 ECM suite AN/UYK-7 computer processing
Armament	2 × Mk-26 missile launchers RIM-66 Standard and ASROC 64 missiles forward 64 missiles aft 2 × quad Mk-143 ABL launchers BGM-109 Tomahawk (8) 4 × quad Mk-141 tube launchers RGM-84 Harpoon (16) 1 × 8"/55 cal MCLWG (forward) 2 × Mk-15 Phalanx CIWS (amidships) 2 × triple Mark 32 SVTT Mark 46 torpedo
Aircraft carried	2 x SH-2F LAMPS I helicopters

The strike cruiser (proposed hull designator: CSGN) was a proposal from DARPA for a class of cruisers in the late 1970s. The proposal was for the strike cruiser to be a guided missile attack cruiser with a displacement of around 17,200 long tons (17,500 t), armed and equipped with the Aegis combat system, the SM-2, Harpoon anti-ship missile, the Tomahawk missile, and the Mk71 8-inch gun.

Line drawing of the strike cruiser

Aegis Combat System program office insignia

A prototype strike cruiser was to be the refurbished USS Long Beach at a cost of roughly $800 million, considered because she already carried phased array radars in her SCANFAR system; however, this never came to pass, as the conversion would need to be extensive, stripping the ship down to its hull.

Originally, eight to twelve strike cruisers were projected. The class would have been complemented by the Aegis-equipped fleet defense (DDG-47) version of the Spruance-class destroyer, under Elmo Zumwalt's "High-Low" fleet plan. Plagued with design difficulties and escalating cost, the project was canceled in the closing days of the Ford administration, with only design studies and seaworthiness experiments being finished.^[1] After the cancellation of the class, the Aegis destroyers were expanded into the Ticonderoga class (CG-47) Aegis cruiser program. An intermediate-size design based on the Virginia class was briefly considered, but also rejected.

The design of the Strike Cruiser can to this day be seen on the official Aegis Combat System program office insignia, as the system was initially designed for it.

See also

• Arsenal ship
• DD21
• CG(X)
• Virginia-class cruiser (CGN-42 variant)
• Ticonderoga-class cruiser
• Kirov-class battlecruiser
• Cruiser Baseline
• List of cruisers of the United States Navy

Notes

1. Friedman, Norman (1984). U.S. CRUISERS An Illustrated Design History. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. pp. 419–422.

External links

• Letters to Antiwar.com
• Strike Cruiser (CSGN)- GlobalSecurity.org
• Statement by Ronald O'Rourke before the House Armed Services Committee, 6 April 2006
• CSGN-1 "Strike Cruiser" class - Harpoon HQ
• Shipbucket.com:
  • USS Long Beach CSGN Refit Archived 15 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  • CGN-42-class CSGN Archived 15 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  • CGN-42-class CSGN Archived 15 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  • 1974 CSGN Archived 15 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  • 1974 CSGN Archived 15 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  • 1976 CSGN Archived 15 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine
• Photobucket - Shipbucket: