Video
USS Long Beach: Comment Response
Study USS Long Beach: Comment Response, a Dr. Alex Clarke video from 14 Jun 2023, with 19 time notes. Topics include Guided Missile Cruisers, Nuclear-Powered Warships, US Navy.
Time notes
- 0:18QuestionAre the Ticonderoga-class ships the last American cruisers?AnswerQ&A
They are officially cruisers, but the design argument treats them as large destroyers or destroyer leaders. Long Beach better represents the end of the American cruiser lineage.
- 7:15QuestionWhat might a British nuclear-powered guided-missile cruiser have looked like?AnswerQ&A
The Virginia class is the nearest comparison, although the answer depends heavily on the period and the Royal Navy's available resources.
- 8:10QuestionDid residual radioactivity prevent the remaining section of Long Beach from being scrapped?AnswerQ&A
Probably not. The ship had been defueled about 25 years earlier, and administrative inertia is suggested instead, without a detailed disposal account.
- 8:52The cruiser as a diplomatic presence shipNotable Point
A cruiser can signal resolve without immediately escalating to the arrival of a carrier battle group.
- 10:12QuestionWould a large, missile-heavy CGX built on an Arleigh Burke-like hull be an effective cruiser?AnswerQ&A
It could have useful volume, but a true cruiser must be designed for independent operations rather than only carrier-group air defence.
- 12:12QuestionWhy did Long Beach use 5-inch/38 mounts instead of newer 5-inch/54 guns?AnswerQ&A
The mounts were available, light, and easy to fit. Their proven operation also gave the ship a dependable fallback, although later Vietnam experience with early automatic 5-inch/54 systems could not have informed the original choice.
- 15:37From an enlarged Long Beach to a strike-cruiser classNotable Point
A counterfactual about a larger Long Beach leads into the historical plan for eight to twelve nuclear strike cruisers and an Aegis prototype conversion.
- 18:23Why Aegis forced a clean-sheet strike cruiserNotable Point
The weight and growth of early Aegis equipment pushed the nuclear strike cruiser beyond a Virginia conversion and into a protected, command-capable clean-sheet design.
- 24:18How strike-cruiser numbers could answer KirovNotable Point
The proposed 17,500-ton strike cruiser gains strategic meaning from fleet numbers as well as individual size.
- 25:26The missing British land-based air-defence layerNotable Point
Britain's abandoned land missile proposals help explain why a Type 45 destroyer must sometimes cover air defence over London.
- 26:46An eight-inch Aegis Long Beach and allied fleet choicesNotable Point
A counterfactual Aegis conversion with an eight-inch gun illustrates how one navy's capital investment can reshape allied procurement.
- 28:06QuestionHow did the US Navy support crews maintaining early shipboard missile systems?AnswerQ&A
A dedicated engineering support organization supplied maintenance resources and could respond directly within 24 hours, including by sending an expert to the ship.
- 31:35QuestionHow could Long Beach remain stable despite its tall, block-like superstructure?AnswerQ&A
Heavy machinery and ballast low in the hull counterbalance the superstructure; similar-looking designs need not share a direct prototype relationship.
- 35:11QuestionCould nuclear power be necessary for future railguns and laser weapons at sea?AnswerQ&A
It could be a strong solution because these weapons create demanding power-generation and energy-storage requirements that nuclear propulsion can address.
- 37:05QuestionWould the Des Moines cruiser plans be a useful basis for a modern cruiser?AnswerQ&A
Yes, as a starting point for review. The exchange does not develop a detailed modern design.
- 37:51Reading nuclear fear in postwar artNotable Point
A museum comment opens a concise interpretation of how 1950s art registered public fear of nuclear war.
- 39:20QuestionWhy does the design-lineage argument exclude the Virginia class from the final US cruiser line?AnswerQ&A
It is treated as a destroyer-derived design whose hull was not strong enough for the required topweight, unlike Long Beach's cruiser-standard construction.
- 42:56QuestionWas Long Beach retired only because of age?AnswerQ&A
No. Post-Cold War budget cuts and the cost of operating and refuelling nuclear surface ships drove the wider retirement decision.
- 43:14Long Beach's cross-deck missile flexibilityNotable Point
Long Beach could transfer Terrier missiles between launchers, a small design feature that added resilience to its missile armament.