The United States Navy's first four classes of guided missile cruisers were conversions of WWII-era gun cruisers of the
Baltimore,
Cleveland, and
Oregon City-classes and were armed with the
first-generation Terrier, Talos, and Tartar missiles. While short lived and and ultimately a dead end in warship design, these vessels were revolutionary when commissioned.
The two ships of the
Boston-class were converted from
Baltimore-class heavy cruisers to become the world's first operational guided missile warships. They retained much of their original gun armament, losing only their rearmost 8" and 5" turrets. These two turrets were replaced with a pair of twin rail Mk 4 launchers with magazines for a staggering one-hundred and forty-four Terrier missiles.
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| Boston in 1955: 144x Terrier |
Galveston-class and Providence-class
The next round of cruiser conversions switched to the smaller but more numerous
Cleveland-class light cruisers. Six ships were converted in total: three into the Talos-armed
Glaveston-class and three into the Terrier-armed
Providence-class. The lead ship of both classes lost half of her gun armament in exchange for a single twin rail launcher aft and the accompanying sensor suite. The other four ships were built with extensive flag facilities and only retained one 6" and one 5" turret, both forward.
The Galveston-class carried the Mk 7 launcher with a 46-missile magazine while the Providence-class was equipped with the Mk 9 launcher and 120-missiles. The difference between these capacities serves to underscore the massive size of the Talos missile.
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| Galveston in 1958: 46x Talos |
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| Providence in 1959: 120x Terrier |
The final converted cruisers were the three ship Albany-class. Albany herself was an Oregon City-class heavy cruiser, while her two sisters came from the Baltimore-class. Unlike the previous austere conversions, these ships were rebuilt from the main deck up as pure missile ships (although a pair of 5" guns was later added) and had something of a bizarre look to them.
Armament consisted of twin-rail Mk 12 Talos launchers fore and aft (52 missiles each), a secondary battery of twin-rail Mk 11 Tartar launchers amidships (42 missiles each), and an eight-cell Mk 112 box launcher for ASROC. Altogether, they carried 196 missiles of all types, beating even
USS Long Beach (CGN-9). However, their conversions proved far more expensive than originally planned. When combined with the large number of purpose built missile ships then entering the fleet, as well as the dwindling number of WWII cruiser hulls, the
Albany-class marked the end of the conversion program.
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| Albany in 1962: 104x Talos, 84x Tartar, 8x ASROC |
Looking at the armament of these vessels, one can see a much greater priority given to magazine depth than in ships today. Most modern air defense ships carry only 32-48 surface-to-air missiles, which is a far cry from the 140-144 of the
Boston and
Providence-class, much less the 188 of the
Albany-class. This incredible magazine depth was likely a response to the then-recent experiences of WWII, when attacks by hundreds of aircraft were not uncommon.
However, unlike modern ships, the armament of these old cruisers was very one-dimensional. They possessed no land-attack or long-range antiship missiles, instead relying on their gun armament, and only the
Albany-class had a (limited) antisubmarine capability. The
purpose-built guided missile cruisers that succeeded them brought much more balanced missile loadouts to the table, although it was not until the 1980s that
land-attack cruise missiles finally began appearing.
