Leahy-class cruiser

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USS Leahy (CG-16)
Class overview
Name	Leahy class
Builders	Several
Operators	United States Navy
Preceded by	Albany class (as Cruiser) Farragut class (as Destroyer Leader)
Succeeded by	Belknap class
Subclasses	Bainbridge class
Built	1959–1964
In commission	1962–1995
Completed	9
Active	0
Retired	9
General characteristics
Type	Guided-missile cruiser
Displacement	7,800 tons (full load)
Length	533 ft (162 m)
Beam	55 ft (17 m)
Draft	26 ft (7.9 m)
Propulsion	2 × steam turbines providing 85,000 shp (63 MW); 2 shafts 4 × boilers
Speed	32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph)
Range	8,000 nautical miles (15,000 km; 9,200 mi) at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Sensors and processing systems	AN/SPS-39 followed by AN/SPS-48 3D air search radar AN/SPS-43 followed by AN/SPS-49 2D air search radar AN/SPS-10 surface search radar AN/SPG-55 missile fire control radar AN/SQS-23 bow mounted sonar
Electronic warfare & decoys	AN/SLQ-32 Mark 36 SRBOC
Armament	2 × Mark 10 Terrier SAM 1 × ASROC ASW system 4 × 3 in(76 mm)guns (replaced by Harpoon missiles during 1980s) 6 × 12.75 in(324 mm)ASW TT 2 × Phalanx CIWS
Aircraft carried	None

Leahy-class cruisers were a class of guided-missile cruisers built for the United States Navy. They were originally designated as Destroyer Leaders (DLG), but in the 1975 cruiser realignment they were reclassified as guided-missile cruisers (CG).

They were a new "double-ender" class fitted with Terrier (later Standard ER) missile launchers fore and aft, and the first and only frigate class designed without a main gun battery for shore bombardment or ship-vs.-ship engagements—the gun armament was reduced in order to carry a larger missile load. One of the principal missions of these ships, like their predecessors the Farragut class, was to form part of the anti-air and antisubmarine screen for carrier task forces, while also controlling aircraft from the carrier by providing vectors to assigned targets.

The ships carried over the propulsion plant of the Farragut class, fitted into a longer hull designed with a knuckled “hurricane” bow that reduced plunging in a rough sea, thus keeping the forecastle dry as needed to operate the forward missile launcher. Other features included an expanded electrical plant and increased endurance. A major design innovation was the use of "macks"—combined masts and stacks—on which the radars could be mounted without smoke interference.^[1]