Des Moines-class cruiser
![]() USS Salem on 16 June 1952
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Class overview | |
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Name | Des Moines-class |
Builders |
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Operators | ![]() |
Preceded by | Oregon City class |
Succeeded by | None |
In commission | 1948–75 |
Planned | 12 |
Completed | 3 |
Cancelled | 9[1][2] |
Retired | 3 |
Preserved | 1 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Heavy cruiser |
Displacement |
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Length | |
Beam | 76 ft 6 in (23.32 m) |
Draft | 22 ft (6.7 m) |
Propulsion |
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Speed | 33 kn (61 km/h) |
Range |
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Boats & landing craft carried | 2-4 × lifeboats |
Complement | 1,799 officers and enlisted |
Sensors and processing systems |
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Armament |
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Armor |
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Aviation facilities |
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The Des Moines-class cruisers were a trio of very large U.S. Navy heavy cruisers commissioned in 1948 and 1949. They were the last of the all-gun heavy cruisers, exceeded in size in the American navy only by the 30,000 long tons (30,481 t) Alaska-class cruisers that straddled the line between heavy cruiser and battlecruiser. Two were decommissioned by 1961 but the Newport News (CA-148), served until 1975. USS Salem is a museum ship in Quincy, Massachusetts the other two were scrapped.
Description[]
Derived from the Baltimore-class heavy cruisers, they were larger, had an improved machinery layout and carried a new design of auto-loading, rapid-fire 8"/55 gun (the Mk16).[3][4][5] The improved Mk16 guns of the main battery were the first auto-loading 8" guns fielded by the US Navy and allowed a much higher rate of fire than earlier designs, capable of sustaining eight shots per minute per barrel, about twice that previous heavy cruisers could.[4][6] The auto-loading mechanism could function at any elevation, giving some anti-aircraft capability.[4] While the secondary battery of six twin 5"/38 Mk12 DP guns was essentially unchanged from the Oregon City and Baltimore-class cruisers, the Des Moines class carried a stronger battery of small-caliber anti-aircraft guns, including 12 twin 3-inch/50 Mk27 and later Mk33 guns, that were considered superior to the earlier ships' quad-mounted 40mm Bofors against comptempary airborne threats.[4]
History[]
Twelve ships of the class were planned, but only three were completed: Des Moines (CA-134), Salem (CA-139) and Newport News (CA-148), with USS Dallas (CA-140) canceled when approximately 28 percent complete.
Their speed made them valuable to escort carrier groups and they were useful in showing the flag in goodwill visits. The first two were decommissioned in 1961 and 1959, respectively, but Newport News remained in commission until 1975, serving for a long period (1962–1968) as United States Second Fleet flagship, and providing valuable gunfire support off Vietnam from 1967 to 1973. The ship's missions included shelling targets close to the North Vietnam shoreline. In August 1972 she raided Haiphong harbor at night with other US Navy ships to shell coastal defences, Surface-to-air missile sites and Cat Bi airfield.
Newport News was the last active all-gun cruiser (serving 25.5 years continuously) and the first completely air-conditioned surface ship in the U.S. Navy. Salem is a museum ship in Quincy, Massachusetts. Newport News was laid up at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and scrapped in 1993, and Des Moines was scrapped in 2006–2007. Dallas (CA-140) and eight other ships (CA-141 through CA-143 and CA-149 through CA-153) were canceled at the end of World War II.[2][4]
Ships in class[]
Ship name | Hull No. | Builder | Laid down | Launched | Commissioned | Decommissioned | Fate |
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Des Moines | CA-134 | Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Fore River Shipyard, Quincy, Massachusetts | 28 May 1945 | 27 September 1946 | 16 November 1948 | 6 July 1961 | Struck 9 July 1991, scrapped 2007 |
Salem | CA-139 | 4 July 1945 | 25 March 1947 | 14 May 1949 | 30 January 1959 | Struck 12 July 1991, museum ship at Quincy, Massachusetts | |
Dallas | CA-140 | 15 October 1945 | N/A | Cancelled 6 June 1946 | |||
N/A | CA-141 | N/A | Cancelled 7 January 1946 | ||||
CA-142 | Cancelled 12 August 1945 | ||||||
CA-143 | |||||||
Newport News | CA-148 | Newport News Shipbuilding, Newport News, Virginia | 1 October 1945 | 6 March 1948 | 29 January 1949 | 27 June 1975 | Struck 31 July 1978, Sold for scrap, 25 February 1993 |
N/A | CA-149 | N/A | Cancelled 12 August 1945 | ||||
CA-150 | New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey | ||||||
CA-151 | |||||||
CA-152 | |||||||
CA-153 |
Gallery[]
USS Des Moines
USS Salem
USS Newport News
See also[]
Contemporary U.S. cruiser designs
References[]
- ^ Andrew Toppan (2000-04-24). "US Cruisers List: US Light/Heavy/AntiAircraft Cruisers, Part 2". Haze Gray & Underway.
- ^ a b "CA-134 Des Moines – Ship Listing". GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved 2009-02-28.
- ^ "CA-134 Des Moines Class". GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved 2009-02-28.
- ^ a b c d e "CA-134 Des Moines – Program". GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved 2009-02-28.
- ^ "CA-134 Des Moines Specifications". GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved 2009-02-28.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-06-20. Retrieved 2019-07-23.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
External links[]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Des Moines class cruiser. |
- Des Moines class cruiser—NavSource Online
- Des Moines class cruiser—GlobalSecurity.org
- Des Moines class cruiser—National Park Service
- Cruiser classes
- Des Moines-class cruisers
- 1940s ships