2026 - USS Long Beach - The First Nuclear Surface Ship

This 2026 NR-HA focus paper examines the development of USS Long Beach (CGN-9), the Navy’s first nuclear-powered surface combatant and first large all-missile cruiser. It traces the ship’s origins in the Navy’s late-1950s vision of nuclear-powered carrier task forces, explains the C1W reactor plant’s relationship to the A1W prototype at Idaho, and describes the ship’s changing weapons concept, including the cancellation of Regulus and rejection of Polaris. The paper also addresses construction at Bethlehem Steel’s Quincy yard, the severe shipyard-management and quality-control problems identified by Rickover’s review team, major cost growth, schedule delays, and sea-trial performance. Overall, it argues that Long Beach proved nuclear propulsion could succeed in a major surface escort, but also exposed the cost, industrial, weapons-integration, and organizational challenges that made the early nuclear surface fleet politically difficult to expand.