The Oregon City class was a class of heavy cruisers of the United States Navy. Although ten ships of this class were planned, only four were completed – one of those as a command ship. The three ships completed as cruisers were in commission from 1946 to 1980, one having been converted to a guided missile cruiser (CG).
The Oregon City-class cruisers were a modified version of the previous design; the main difference was a more compact pyramidal superstructure with single trunked funnel, intended to improve the arcs of fire of the anti-aircraft (AA) guns. The same type of modification also differentiated the and classes, and to a lesser degree the and classes of light cruisers.[1]
Ten ships were authorized for the class with three being completed and the fourth suspended during construction. The final six ships were cancelled, five after being laid down. Construction on the incomplete fourth ship was resumed in 1948 and the ship served as a command ship . All three completed cruisers were commissioned in 1946. Oregon City was decommissioned after only 22 months of service, one of the shortest active careers of any World War II-era cruiser. Albany was later converted into a guided missile ship, becoming the lead ship of the and served until 1980. A similar conversion was planned for Rochester but was cancelled.
| +Ships in class[2] | |||||||
| Name | Hull Number | Builder | Laid down | Launched | Commissioned/ Recommissioned | Decommissioned | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CA-122 | Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Fore River Shipyard, Quincy, Massachusetts | 8 April 1944 | 9 June 1945 | 16 February 1946 | 15 December 1947 | Struck 1 November 1970; Sold for scrap, 17 August 1973 | |
| CA-123 | 6 Mar 1944 | 11 Jun 1945 | 15 June 1946 | 30 June 1958 | Converted to Guided Missile Cruiser[3] Struck 30 June 1985; Sold for scrap, 12 August 1990 | ||
| CG-10 | 3 November 1962 | 29 August 1980 | |||||
| CA-124 | 29 May 1944 | 28 August 1945 | 20 December 1946 | 15 August 1961 | Struck 1 October 1973; Sold for scrap, 24 September 1974 | ||
| CA-125 | 31 August 1944 | 27 January 1951 | 7 March 1953 | 8 April 1970 | Converted to command ship during construction – Struck and sold for scrap, 31 Dec 1977 | ||
| CLC-1 | |||||||
| Cambridge | CA-126 | 16 December 1944 | Cancelled 12 August 1945 and scrapped on slip | ||||
| Bridgeport | CA-127 | 13 January 1945 | Cancelled 12 August 1945 and scrapped on slip | ||||
| Kansas City | CA-128 | 9 July 1945 | Cancelled 12 August 1945 and scrapped on slip | ||||
| Tulsa | CA-129 | Cancelled 12 August 1945 | |||||
| Norfolk | CA-137 | Philadelphia Naval Shipyard | 27 December 1944 | Cancelled 12 August 1945 and scrapped on slip | |||
| Scranton | CA-138 | 27 December 1944 | Cancelled 12 August 1945 and scrapped on slip |