Editing Cruiser (section)

===US cruiser development===
The US Navy was aware of the potential missile threat as soon as World War II ended, and had considerable related experience due to Japanese ''kamikaze'' attacks in that war. The initial response was to upgrade the light AA armament of new cruisers from 40&nbsp;mm and 20&nbsp;mm weapons to twin [[3"/50 caliber gun|3-inch (76 mm)/50 caliber gun mounts]].<ref>Friedman cruisers, pp. 361–362</ref> For the longer term, it was thought that gun systems would be inadequate to deal with the missile threat, and by the mid-1950s three naval SAM systems were developed: [[Talos missile|Talos]] (long range), [[Terrier missile|Terrier]] (medium range), and [[Tartar missile|Tartar]] (short range).<ref name=FriedCruMis1>Friedman cruisers, pp. 378–382</ref> Talos and Terrier were nuclear-capable and this allowed their use in anti-ship or shore bombardment roles in the event of nuclear war.<ref>Friedman destroyers, p. 301</ref> [[Chief of Naval Operations]] Admiral [[Arleigh Burke]] is credited with speeding the development of these systems.<ref>Friedman destroyers, pp. 293–294</ref>

Terrier was initially deployed on two [[Boston-class cruiser|converted ''Baltimore''-class cruisers]] (CAG), with conversions completed in 1955–56.<ref name=FriedCruMis1/> Further conversions of six ''Cleveland''-class cruisers (CLG) ({{sclass|Galveston|cruiser|5}} and {{sclass|Providence|cruiser|5}} classes), redesign of the {{sclass|Farragut|destroyer (1958)|4}} as guided-missile "frigates" (DLG),<ref>Friedman destroyers, pp. 297–298</ref> and development of the {{sclass|Charles F. Adams|destroyer|0}} DDGs<ref>Bauer and Roberts, p. 211</ref> resulted in the completion of numerous additional guided-missile ships deploying all three systems in 1959–1962. Also completed during this period was the nuclear-powered {{USS|Long Beach|CGN-9|6}}, with two Terrier and one Talos launchers, plus an [[ASROC]] anti-submarine launcher the World War II conversions lacked.<ref name=RegisterCG1>Bauer and Roberts, pp. 153–155</ref> The converted World War II cruisers up to this point retained one or two main battery turrets for shore bombardment. However, in 1962–1964 three additional ''Baltimore'' and {{sclass|Oregon City|cruiser|0}} cruisers were more extensively converted as the {{sclass|Albany|cruiser|4}}. These had two Talos and two Tartar launchers plus ASROC and two 5-inch (127&nbsp;mm) guns for self-defense, and were primarily built to get greater numbers of Talos launchers deployed.<ref name=RegisterCG1/> Of all these types, only the ''Farragut'' DLGs were selected as the design basis for further production, although their {{sclass|Leahy|cruiser|0}} successors were significantly larger (5,670 tons standard versus 4,150 tons standard) due to a second Terrier launcher and greater endurance.<ref name=RegisterDLG1>Bauer and Roberts, pp. 213–217</ref><ref>Friedman destroyers, pp. 300–304</ref> An economical crew size compared with World War II conversions was probably a factor, as the ''Leahy''s required a crew of only 377 versus 1,200 for the ''Cleveland''-class conversions.<ref>Bauer and Roberts, pp. 154, 214</ref> Through 1980, the ten ''Farragut''s were joined by four additional classes and two one-off ships for a total of 36 guided-missile frigates, eight of them nuclear-powered (DLGN). In 1975 the ''Farragut''s were reclassified as guided-missile destroyers (DDG) due to their small size, and the remaining DLG/DLGN ships became guided-missile cruisers (CG/CGN).<ref name=RegisterDLG1/> The World War II conversions were gradually retired between 1970 and 1980; the Talos missile was withdrawn in 1980 as a cost-saving measure and the ''Albany''s were decommissioned. ''Long Beach'' had her Talos launcher removed in a refit shortly thereafter; the deck space was used for Harpoon missiles.<ref>Friedman cruisers, p. 398, 422</ref> Around this time the Terrier ships were upgraded with the [[RIM-67 Standard]] ER missile.<ref>Gardiner and Chumbley, p. 552</ref> The guided-missile frigates and cruisers served in the Cold War and the Vietnam War; off Vietnam they performed shore bombardment and shot down enemy aircraft or, as Positive Identification Radar Advisory Zone ([[PIRAZ]]) ships, [[radar picket|guided fighters]] to intercept enemy aircraft.<ref>Friedman cruisers, pp. 398–400, 412</ref> By 1995 the former guided-missile frigates were replaced by the {{sclass|Ticonderoga|cruiser|1}}s and {{sclass|Arleigh Burke|destroyer|1}}s.<ref>Gardiner and Chumbley, pp. 580–585</ref>

The U.S. Navy's guided-missile cruisers were built upon destroyer-style hulls (some called "destroyer leaders" or "frigates" prior to the 1975 reclassification). As the U.S. Navy's strike role was centered around aircraft carriers, cruisers were primarily designed to provide air defense while often adding anti-submarine capabilities.<ref>{{Cite journal |year=1984 |title=A fully illustrated guide to Modern Cruisers |journal=War Machine |location=London |publisher=Orbis Publishing |volume=3 |issue=30}}</ref> These U.S. cruisers that were built in the 1960s and 1970s were larger, often nuclear-powered for extended endurance in escorting nuclear-powered fleet carriers, and carried longer-range surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) than early ''Charles F. Adams'' guided-missile destroyers that were tasked with the short-range air defense role. The U.S. cruiser was a major contrast to their contemporaries, Soviet "rocket cruisers" that were armed with large numbers of anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCMs) as part of the combat doctrine of saturation attack,<ref name=":0">Gardiner and Chumbley (1995)</ref> though in the early 1980s the U.S. Navy retrofitted some of these existing cruisers to carry a small number of Harpoon anti-ship missiles and [[Tomahawk (missile family)|Tomahawk cruise missile]]s.<ref name=":1">Gardiner and Chumbley, pp. 581–585</ref>

The line between U.S. Navy cruisers and destroyers blurred with the {{sclass|Spruance|destroyer|4}}. While originally designed for anti-submarine warfare, a ''Spruance'' destroyer was comparable in size to existing U.S. cruisers, while having the advantage of an enclosed hangar (with space for up to two medium-lift helicopters) which was a considerable improvement over the basic aviation facilities of earlier cruisers. The ''Spruance'' hull design was used as the basis for two classes; the {{sclass|Kidd|destroyer|4}} which had comparable anti-air capabilities to cruisers at the time, and then the DDG-47-class destroyers which were redesignated as the ''Ticonderoga''-class guided-missile cruisers to emphasize the additional capability provided by the ships' [[Aegis combat system]]s, and their flag facilities suitable for an admiral and his staff. In addition, 24 members of the ''Spruance'' class were upgraded with the vertical launch system (VLS) for Tomahawk cruise missiles due to its modular hull design, along with the similarly VLS-equipped ''Ticonderoga'' class, these ships had anti-surface strike capabilities beyond the 1960s–1970s cruisers that received Tomahawk armored-box launchers as part of the [[New Threat Upgrade]]. Like the ''Ticonderoga'' ships with VLS, the ''Arleigh Burke'' and {{sclass|Zumwalt|destroyer|4}}, despite being classified as destroyers, actually have much heavier anti-surface armament than previous U.S. ships classified as cruisers.{{citation_needed|date=August 2019}}
[[File:Garibaldi_Taranto_10_giugno_68.jpg|thumb|Italian cruiser ''[[Italian cruiser Giuseppe Garibaldi (1936)|Giuseppe Garibaldi]]'']]
Following the American example, three smaller light cruisers of other [[NATO]] countries were rearmed with anti-aircraft missiles installed in place of their aft armament: the Dutch ''De Zeven Provinciën'', the Italian ''[[Italian cruiser Giuseppe Garibaldi (1936)|Giuseppe Garibaldi]]'', and the French ''[[French cruiser Colbert (C611)|Colbert]]''.<ref name=":16">Gardiner and Chumbley, pp. 109, 199, 272</ref> Only the French ship, rebuilt last in 1972, also received [[Exocet]] anti-ship missile launchers and domestically produced [[Masurca]] anti-aircraft missiles.<ref name=":16" /> The others received American Terrier missiles, with ''Garibaldi'' uniquely among surface ships also being armed with Polaris strategic missile launchers, although these were never actually carried.<ref>Gardiner and Chumbley, p. 199</ref> In the [[Soviet Navy]], only one cruiser, ''Dzerzhinsky'', of [[Sverdlov-class cruiser|Project 68bis]], was similarly rearmed with anti-aircraft missiles.<ref name=":17">Biereżnoj, pp. 2–3</ref> The M-2 missiles used on it, adapted from the land-based [[S-75 Dvina|S-75]], proved ineffective as a naval system, and further conversions were abandoned.<ref name=":18">Asanin, pp. 6–7</ref> Another cruiser of this project, ''Admiral Nakhimov'', was used for testing anti-ship missiles but never entered service in this role.<ref name=":18" /> The British considered converting older cruisers to guided-missile cruisers with the [[Seaslug (missile)|Seaslug]] system but ultimately did not proceed.<ref>Gardiner and Chumbley, p. 504</ref> Several other classical cruisers from various countries were rearmed with short-range anti-aircraft systems requiring fewer modifications, such as [[Seacat (missile)|Seacat]] or [[OSA-M|Osa-M]], but since these were intended only for self-defense, they are not considered guided-missile cruisers (e.g., the Soviet ''Zhdanov'' and ''Admiral Senyavin'' of Project 68U).<ref name=":17" /> The Peruvian light cruiser ''Almirante Grau'' (formerly the Dutch ''De Ruyter'') was rearmed with eight [[Otomat]] anti-ship missiles at the end of the 20th century, but these did not constitute its primary armament.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pacholski |first=Łukasz |year=2017 |title=Koniec epoki krążowników artyleryjskich |journal=Morze |language=pl |volume=III |issue=25 |page=26 |issn=2543-5469}}</ref>

====US Navy "cruiser gap"====
{{main|United States Navy 1975 ship reclassification}}

Prior to the introduction of the ''Ticonderoga''s, the US Navy used odd naming conventions that left its fleet seemingly without many cruisers, although a number of their ships were cruisers in all but name. From the 1950s to the 1970s, US Navy cruisers were large vessels equipped with heavy, specialized missiles (mostly surface-to-air, but for several years including the [[Regulus missile|Regulus]] [[nuclear weapon|nuclear]] cruise missile) for wide-ranging combat against land-based and sea-based targets. Naming conventions changed, and some guided-missile cruisers were classified as frigates or destroyers during certain periods or at the construction stage.<ref name=":0" /> All save one—USS ''Long Beach''—were converted from World War II cruisers of the ''Oregon City'', ''Baltimore'' and ''Cleveland'' classes. ''Long Beach'' was also the last cruiser built with a World War II-era cruiser style hull (characterized by a long lean hull);<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/historic-navy-cruiser-uss-long-beach-to-be-auctioned-as-scrap-metal-by-government-liquidation-starting-tuesday-july-10-159701705.html|title=Historic Navy Cruiser, USS Long Beach, To Be Auctioned As Scrap Metal By Government Liquidation Starting Tuesday, July 10|date=12 June 2012|publisher=PR Newswire|access-date=26 January 2016}}</ref><ref name="auctioned2012">{{cite news|last=Censer|first=Marjorie|title=Historic nuclear cruiser headed to scrap heap|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/navy-auctions-uss-long-beach-historic-nuclear-cruiser-off-for-scrap/2012/09/18/7dd244b8-dccf-11e1-9974-5c975ae4810f_story.html|access-date=18 September 2012|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=18 September 2012}}</ref> later new-build cruisers were actually converted frigates (DLG/CG {{USS|Bainbridge|DLGN-25|6}}, {{USS|Truxtun|DLGN-35|6}}, and the ''Leahy'', {{sclass|Belknap|cruiser|5}}, {{sclass|California|cruiser|5}}, and {{sclass|Virginia|cruiser|5}} classes) or uprated destroyers (the DDG/CG ''Ticonderoga'' class was built on a ''Spruance''-class destroyer hull).<ref name=":1" />

Literature sometimes considers ships as cruisers even if they are not officially classified as such, primarily larger representatives of the Soviet large anti-submarine ship class, which had no equivalent in global classification.<ref name=":8">Gardiner and Chumbley, pp. 380–382</ref> Ultimately, after the [[United States Navy 1975 ship reclassification|1975 classification reform]] in the US, larger ships were called cruisers, slightly smaller and weaker fleet escorts were called destroyers, and smaller ships for ocean escort and anti-submarine warfare were called frigates.<ref name=":9">Gardiner and Chumbley, pp. 551–555, 580</ref> However, the size and qualitative differences between them and destroyers were vague and arbitrary.<ref name=":9" /> With the development of destroyers, this distinction has blurred even further (for example, the American [[Arleigh Burke-class destroyer|''Arleigh Burke''-class destroyers]], complementing the ''Ticonderoga''-class cruisers as the core of US Navy air defense, have displacements up to 9,700 tons and nearly equal combat capabilities, carrying the Aegis system and similar missiles, albeit in smaller numbers; similarly for Japanese destroyers).<ref name=":10">Lipiecki, p. 8</ref><ref>Gardiner and Chumbley, p. 592</ref><ref name=":27">{{Cite journal |last=Lipiecki |first=Sławomir |year=2019 |title=Japońska tarcza. Niszczyciele rakietowe typu Maya |journal=Morze, Statki i Okręty |language=pl |volume=7-8 |pages=17–18}}</ref>

Frigates under this scheme were almost as large as the cruisers and optimized for [[anti-aircraft]] warfare, although they were capable anti-surface warfare combatants as well. In the late 1960s, the US government perceived a "cruiser gap"—at the time, the US Navy possessed six ships designated as cruisers, compared to 19 for the Soviet Union, even though the USN had 21 ships designated as frigates with equal or superior capabilities to the Soviet cruisers at the time.  Because of this, in 1975 the Navy performed a massive redesignation of its forces:<ref name=":9" />
* CVA/CVAN (Attack Aircraft Carrier/Nuclear-powered Attack Aircraft Carrier) were redesignated CV/CVN (although {{USS|Midway|CV-41|6}} and {{USS |Coral Sea|CV-43|6}} never embarked anti-submarine squadrons).
* DLG/DLGN (Frigates/Nuclear-powered Frigates) of the ''Leahy'', ''Belknap'', and ''California'' classes along with USS ''Bainbridge'' and USS ''Truxtun'' were redesignated CG/CGN (Guided-Missile Cruiser/Nuclear-powered Guided-Missile Cruiser).
* ''Farragut''-class guided-missile frigates (DLG), being smaller and less capable than the others, were redesignated to DDGs ({{USS|Coontz|DDG-40|6}} was the first ship of this class to be re-numbered; because of this the class is sometimes called the ''Coontz'' class);
* DE/DEG (Ocean Escort/Guided-Missile Ocean Escort) were redesignated to FF/FFG (Guided-Missile Frigates), bringing the US "Frigate" designation into line with the rest of the world.

Also, a series of Patrol Frigates of the {{sclass|Oliver Hazard Perry|frigate|4}}, originally designated PFG, were redesignated into the FFG line. The cruiser-destroyer-frigate realignment and the deletion of the Ocean Escort type brought the US Navy's ship designations into line with the rest of the world's, eliminating confusion with foreign navies. In 1980, the Navy's then-building DDG-47-class destroyers were redesignated as cruisers (''Ticonderoga'' guided-missile cruisers) to emphasize the additional capability provided by the ships' Aegis combat systems, and their flag facilities suitable for an admiral and his staff.{{citation_needed|date=August 2019}}