Virginia class cruiser

USS Virginia
Class overview
Name:	Virginia class
Builders:	Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company
Operators:	United States Navy
Preceded by:	California class
Succeeded by:	Ticonderoga class
Cost:	$675 million (1990 dollars)
Built:	1972–1980
In commission:	1976–1998
Planned:	11
Completed:	4
Cancelled:	7
Retired:	4
General characteristics
Type:	Guided missile cruiser
Displacement:	Light displacement: 10,663 tons Full displacement: 11,666 tons
Length:	586 ft (179 m) oa.
Beam:	63 ft (19 m) max.
Draft:	32 ft (9.8 m) max.
Propulsion:	2 D2G General Electric nuclear reactors, two shafts, 60,000 shp (45,000 kW)
Speed:	over 30 kn (56 km/h; 35 mph)
Range:	Unlimited
Complement:	39 officers, 540 enlisted
Sensors and processing systems:	AN/SPS-48E 3-D air search radar AN/SPS-49 2-D air search radar AN/SPS-55 surface search radar AN/SPQ-9A gun fire control radar AN/SPG-60 fire control radar AN/SPG-51 missile fire control radar AN/SQS-26 bow mounted sonar
Electronic warfare & decoys:	AN/SLQ-32 Mark 36 SRBOC AN/SLQ-25 Nixie
Armament:	2 × Mk 26 missile launchers for 68 missiles RIM-66 Standard Missiles (MR) / RUR-5 ASROC 8 × Tomahawk missile (from 2 armored-box launchers after a refitting) 8 × RGM-84 Harpoon (from two Mk-141 quad launchers) 4 × Mk 46 torpedoes (from fixed single tubes) 2 × Mk-45 5-inch/54 caliber rapid-fire gun 2 × 20 mm Phalanx CIWS (post-refit) 2 × 25 mm Mk 38 chain guns 6 × .50 cal (12.7 mm) M2 machine guns
Armor:	1 in (25 mm) Kevlar plastic armor installed around combat information center, magazines, and machinery spaces
Aircraft carried:	As built: below-deck hangar for one SH-2F Seasprite helicopter Flight deck occupied by Tomahawk missile storage & launcher after refitting

The Virginia-class nuclear guided-missile cruisers, also known as the CGN-38 class, were a series of four double-ended (with missile armament carried both fore and aft) nuclear-powered guided-missile cruisers commissioned in the late 1970s to 1980, which served in the United States Navy until the mid-to-late 1990s. They were the final class of nuclear-powered cruisers completed.

The ships had a relatively short service lives. As with any nuclear powered ship, they were expensive to operate. The class was just coming up for their mid-life reactor refuelings just as the 1994 Defense Authorization Bill was being formulated, which would impact cuts of 38% to the Navy's budget, compared to the 1993 bill. The $300-million-plus cost of each refueling and other upgrades made the class easy targets for decommissioning. Each ship was therefore retired starting with Texas in July 1993 and ending with Arkansas in 1996, and each ship went through the nuclear vessel (ships and submarines) decommissioning and recycling program.

The ships were derived from the earlier California-class nuclear cruiser (CGN-36 class). Three of the four Virginia-class ships were authorized as guided missile frigates (in the pre-1975 definition), and they were redesignated as cruisers either before commissioning or before their launching. The last warship, Arkansas, was authorized, laid down, launched, and commissioned as a guided-missile cruiser. A fifth warship, CGN-42, was canceled before being named or laid down.

With their nuclear power plants, and the resulting capability of steaming at high speeds for long periods of time, these were excellent escorts for the fast nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, such as the Nimitz class. They also had had excellent flagship facilities. Their main mission was as air-defense ships, while they also had capabilities as anti-submarine (ASW) ships, surface-to-surface warfare (SSW) ships, and in gun and missile bombardment of shore targets. The Virginia class as designed carried two LAMPS helicopters, aft of the superstructure with a flight deck, and in a unique arrangement among the U.S. Navy the hangers were below-decks, an improvement over the preceding California-class which only had only a landing pad aft and basic refueling equipment.

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Wikipedia