USS Long Beach: 2 Nuclear Reactors, 80,000 Horsepower, Unlimited Range, and Stacked with Missiles. The US Navy Does Not Operate a Single Nuclear Cruiser Today.

USS Long Beach: 2 Nuclear Reactors, 80,000 Horsepower, Unlimited Range, and Stacked with Missiles. The US Navy Does Not Operate a Single Nuclear Cruiser Today.

Long Beach was built to escort the Navy's new nuclear carriers, which conventional escorts couldn't keep pace with on long deployments. Two C1W reactors drove steam turbines producing about 80,000 shaft horsepower for more than 30 knots, and the ship could stay underway for months, limited by food and crew fatigue rather than fuel. Its slab-sided aluminum-and-steel superstructure carried the AN/SPS-32 and AN/SPS-33, among the earliest electronic…