Albany Class; Conversioning for a Missile(A quick boxing day recording)

The opening explains why the Albany-class conversions depended on large, strongly built Oregon City heavy-cruiser hulls.

Groups of conventional American heavy cruisers could still pose a serious postwar surface threat before missiles reshaped their role.

A look at Chicago's conversion shows the hull stripped down, rebuilt, and given the huge superstructure that defines the Albany class.

The Albany superstructure prompts a comparison with proposals that would put missiles aft on a battleship while preserving its forward main battery.

A five-year rebuild of three heavy cruisers raises the question of whether conversion saved enough money compared with building new missile cruisers.

The finished Chicago shows how missiles, ASROC, and retained five-inch guns replaced a heavy cruiser's main battery with an air-defense and escort system.

Chicago's low trainable launchers lead into a comparison of deep magazines, rough-sea handling, and the faster firing cycle of vertical launch systems.

Albany's career shows how a common heavy cruiser used for diplomacy and flag duties became one of the U.S. Navy's scarce, prestigious guided-missile cruisers.

Albany's Atlantic and Mediterranean flagship service came with repeated yard periods, followed by an unsuccessful effort to preserve the ship as a museum.

Columbus changed from Taiwan Strait gun-cruiser work to a quieter Pacific missile career, while her quick rebuild makes Chicago's later five-year conversion harder to explain.

Chicago's five Vietnam deployments and survival in service until 1980 contrast sharply with the five years required to rebuild her.

On the first of five Vietnam deployments, Chicago's Red Crown station grew from tracking Navy aircraft into joint strike coordination and air-warfare command.

A Skyhawk pilot rescue and temporary anti-air-warfare command show how Chicago's sensor picture supported both combat coordination and recovery operations.

Chicago became the primary MiG-warning source and watched the North Vietnam-China border from international waters.

Another Oregon City hull became the National Emergency Command Post Afloat, pairing heavy-cruiser capacity with communications and accommodation for nuclear-war continuity of government.

A proposal to convert the obsolete radar-picket submarine Triton foundered on space, accommodation, and the difficulty of embarking untrained national-command personnel.