Belknap-class cruiser

The Belknap class was a group of guided-missile cruisers built for the United States Navy in the 1960s. Unlike the double-ended missile cruisers, which carried missile launchers both forward and aft, the Belknaps were single-ended, with their missile armament installed forward only. They were first designated DLG frigates, a destroyer-leader type, and were reclassified as guided-missile cruisers (CG) in the 1975 fleet realignment. Their job was anti-air and anti-surface defense of aircraft carrier task forces, and their engineering plant was the one used in the earlier Leahy class. The cruisers were retired in the early 1990s after roughly 30 years of service. Bath Iron Works in Maine built five of the nine ships.