.JPG) USS California (CGN-36) |
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| Career (US) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | California |
| Namesake: | State of California |
| Ordered: | 13 June 1968 |
| Builder: | Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, Newport News, Virginia |
| Laid down: | 23 January 1970 |
| Launched: | 22 September 1971 |
| Acquired: | 7 February 1974 |
| Commissioned: | 16 February 1974 |
| Decommissioned: | 9 July 1999 |
| Struck: | 9 July 1999 |
| Fate: | Nuclear ship recycling, 12 May 2000 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | California class cruiser |
| Displacement: | 10,643 long tons (10,814 t) light 11,548 long tons (11,733 t) full 905 long tons (920 t) dead |
| Length: | 181.6 m (596 ft) overall 173.7 m (570 ft) waterline |
| Beam: | 18.5 m (61 ft) extreme 18.2 m (60 ft) waterline |
| Draft: | 10 m (33 ft) maximum 7 m (23 ft) limit |
| Propulsion: | 2 × General Electric D2G nuclear reactors |
| Speed: | 30 knots (56 km/h)+ |
| Range: | Nuclear |
| Complement: | 40 officers and 544 enlisted |
| Armament: | • 2 × Mk 141 Harpoon missile launchers • 2 × 5 inch/54 calibre Mk 45 guns • 2 × 20 mm Phalanx CIWS • 1 × ASROC missile launcher • 2 × Mk 13 missile launchers for RIM-66 Standard missiles (MR) • Mark 46 torpedoes for anti-submarine use |
| Aircraft carried: | Helicopter deck aft able to accommodate SH-2 Seasprite LAMPS Mk 1, SH-3 Sea King, or CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters. |
USS California (CGN-36), the lead ship of the California-class of nuclear-powered guided missile cruisers, was the seventh warship of the United States Navy to be named for the State of California.
The USS California and her sister ship, the USS South Carolina were equipped with two single-armed Mk 13 launchers, fore and aft, for the Standard Missile, one ASROC missile launcher, and two Mk-141 launchers for the Harpoon missiles. These cruisers were equipped with two 5 inch/54 calibre Mk 45 guns rapid-fire cannons, fore and aft. These two cruisers also had a unique arrangement aft of their superstructures, with a flight deck, complete with a helicopter elevator, and a hangar deck below. Both cruisers also had full suites of anti-submarine warfare equipment. Thus, these warships were designed to combat all threats, in the air, on the surface, and underwater.
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History
The contract to build her was awarded to Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in Newport News, Virginia, on 13 June 1968 and her keel was laid down on 23 January 1970. She was launched on 22 September 1971 sponsored with a "near miss" of the champagne bottle by First Lady of the United States Pat Nixon, and commissioned on 16 February 1974 by The Honorable James E. Johnson, Assistant Secretary, US Navy (Manpower and Reserve Affairs), with Captain Floyd H. Miller, Jr., in command. She was commissioned as a guided-missile frigate (DLGN), but her designation was changed to a guided-missile cruiser (CGN) on 30 June 1975.
The USS California represented the U.S. Navy in the Silver Jubilee naval review in Portsmouth, England in 1977, honoring Queen Elizabeth II.
In 1980, the USS California circumnavigated the globe, becoming the first nuclear-powered warship to do so since the USS Enterprise and her task force of two nuclear-powered escorts had done so in 1964, in "Operation Sea Orbit".
Decommissioning
The USS California was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 9 July 1999. Then, her hulk entered the U.S. Navy's Nuclear-Powered Ship-Submarine recycling program at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard on 1 October 1998. Her recycling and scrapping was completed on 12 May 2000.
In fiction
The writer J. Lanier Yeates had served on board the USS California in 1974 and 1998. In 2005, he wrote the novel Bay of One Hundred Fires, an alternate history work of fiction in which the USS California is overhauled and upgraded, and then plays a key role in fighting the armed forces of the Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein, who had created a stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.
References
This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here.
External links
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