USS Long Beach (CGN-9)

"Nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser in the U.S. Navy and the world's first nuclear-powered surface combatant.Originally designed as a guided missile warship to carry out air defense functions for aircraft carrier formations."

-Ship Description

## Overview

* Base
* Top

## History

The sole member of her class, Long Beach was the first nuclear powered surface combatant of any navy in the world and she was loaded with at the time cutting edge technologies, such as new forms of weaponry, fire control systems, and the much vaunted SCANFAR Radar system which later turned out to be more troublesome than it was worth. After serving in the US navy for almost 40 years, she was stricken from the naval register in 1995, and most of her hull is now preserved in long term storage at Pudget Sound Naval Shipyard.

## Overview

USS Long Beach could be considered a bit of an oddball amongst her cruiser brethren as her overall armament suite seems rather underwhelming especially when compared to the competition. For one, the Ticonderoga siblings feature arguably superior armament options (At least in terms of guns, autocannons, etc) and handle much better to boot, the Kirov siblings are much more heavily armed and better defended by AA overall, and the Varyag absolutely blowing other ships out of the water with its air defense capabilities. Then there are the likes of CG-21(X), Arsenal ship, and battlecruiser 2000.

However, the Long Beach does have its own advantages. For one, triple grenade launchers is not a luxury that many ships have and with the right setup can deliver a lot of extra pain to the enemy. Secondly, Air defense is somewhat compensated by the Mark 30 DP guns which is probably one of if not the best aircraft killing gun in the game courtesy of its tight spread, high damage, and decent range. making this ship a natural bane to drones and bombers.

The Long Beach does not excel in dealing out a lot of damage as quickly as possible but instead, it is a master of death by a thousand cuts. Steadily pumping out a unrelenting stream of gun, missile, grenade, and torpedo fire at a target until they run down their chaff and repair parties before coming in for the finishing blow.

## Tactics

### When playing as Long Beach

Those who have played the Kirov twins before acquiring Long Beach would be familiar with the less than optimal handling characteristics of such a large vessel. While it is possible to play the Long Beach as simply an American Version of these ships with good results, that is not the most optimal way to go about making the most of the ship due to its inferior AA suite, poor handling, and rather horrendous radar signature.

Rather, a more preferable method of playing the Long Beach is to be a sub first line vessel, a frontline support instead of being the main damage dealer courtesy of its high number of missile slots and triple grenade launchers. Let the heavier and more well defended ships soak up the damage from aircraft for you while you help them by shooting down drones and bombers with your main guns and sending missiles and grenades every now and then at ships.

If one insists on being a damage dealer, then a highly competitive setup would be loading up on RUM-139 ASROC's and Ikara's in place of the stock armament. The reasoning behind this is that having this is that Ikara's and ASROC's are immune to being flared, and the way the launchers have been set up allows the ASROCS to deploy their torpedoes in a very wide area once they reach their target, making it difficult to counter all of them with a single grenade launcher salvo. Not to mention such a build is practically a death sentence to submarines which are very prolific in tier 3 lobbies.

### When playing with a Long Beach

When playing with a Long Beach in the fleet, each ship class can provide support in their own way.

Frigates, Destroyers, and Corvettes can stick with the Long beach to provide it some much needed air cover. Because while Sea RAM and RIM-66E's are not to be scoffed at, they are barely adequate in a tier where aircraft carriers can practically send wave after wave of planes on short notice and pummel a lone ship to death very early on in a match. The DP guns on the Long Beach is better suited at taking down bombers and drones, not swarms of attack aircraft.

Fellow cruisers and battleships can use the anti drone and bomber support that a Long Beach can provide, making the battlegroup as a whole more resilient against most forms of air attacks. The Long Beach can also offer them much needed anti submarine capabilities in the form of its triple grenade launchers, which prove very effective at destroying torpedoes or attacking submerged submarines at close range.

Submarines can provide help in the form of hunting down other submarines or carriers, both of which would allow the Long Beach and in general the fleet as a whole to focus on their main jobs which is anti surface warfare.

Carriers are recommended to provide air cover by flying a fighter squadron over to the Long Beach's position at their convenience.

### When playing against Long Beach

The usual anti cruiser tactics apply against the Long Beach. Battleships will have some of the best matchups against the Long beach due to their high alpha damage, while other against cruisers it is a bit of a coin toss as to who would win. Carriers are advised NOT TO send drones or bombers at the Long Beach due to the presence of the Mark 30 guns easily making quick work of them. Submarines are advised to keep their distance as the Long Beach features triple grenade launchers that can dish out a lot of damage in a short period of time. At longer ranges, the single torpedo slot of the ship is barely a threat.

## Suggested Armaments Setup(s)

#### The Competitive Tryhard (AKA Submarine Sashimi)

* Missile: RUM-193 ASROC
* Grenade Launcher: Ikara
* Anti-Air defense: Garpun, Type 730C (Doubles as autocannon)
* Torpedo: Black Shark (Good balance of damage and reload speed)
* Helicopter: WZ-19 CAIC (Fastest Free helicopter for scouting ahead), Defiant X (More optimal choice)

P.S: This build will likely get you a lot of hate from the game chat. You have been warned.

#### Thermonuclear Annihilation

* Missile: GTX-690, RSM-56 Bulava, or JL-2 (Cheap "nuke")
* Grenade Launcher: RPK-1 Vikhr
* Anti-Air defense: Garpun, Type 730C (Doubles as autocannon)
* Torpedo: Mark 45 ASTOR, or Spearfish (Cheaper stand in)
* Helicopter: WZ-19 CAIC (Fastest Free helicopter for scouting ahead), Defiant X (More optimal choice)

Note: This is more a meme build but it is surprisingly effective due to the high damage values of all the aforementioned weapons.

## Pros and Cons

#### Pros

* 4x missile slots gives this ship a lot of damage potential.
* 3x Grenade launcher slots provide plenty of ASW firepower.
* RIM-66E's are highly capable at killing drones and bombers.
* The Mark 30 guns are great at killing bombers and drones, making this ship a natural bane to the main weapons of supercarriers.

#### Cons

* Poor AA count. While by no means a slouch at air defense, the fact of the matter is that the Long Beach only has 2 CIWS slots aside from the RIM-66E.
* Sluggish handling and mobility. The ship won't fare too well in confined waters with regards to handling.
* Only a single torpedo slot, which limits options.
* The Mark 30 guns while featuring a litany of benefits such as auto-aim, fast accuracy recovery, high traverse speed and decent range, features relatively poor damage and reload. For comparison, a full salvo does about 32,000 damage every 4.9 seconds but a pair of 155mm railguns can deal a minimum of 45,000 damage every 3.5 seconds.

## Trivia

* Long Beach was the last true cruiser in the US Navy, being built from a dedicated cruiser hull instead of repurposed destroyer hulls as in the case of the Ticonderoga and previous guided missile cruiser classes.
* While largely accurate to the real ship, the in game model has some creative liberties taken.
	+ twin harpoon launchers instead of the tomahawk armored box launchers at the rear which would have been more consistent with the real ship.
	+ The third ASROC launcher at the fantail of the ship was never there on the real ship, likely for balancing purposes as otherwise the ship would not be competitive in tier 3.
	+ The forward ASROC launcher was not installed on the ship in reality, but there were provisions for it had it been needed. Largely rendered moot after the MK-10 missile launchers gained ASROC launch capability.