Editing Cruiser (section)

====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}}