USS Arkansas (CGN-41)
US Navy guided-missile cruiser / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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USS Arkansas (CGN-41) was a Virginia-class nuclear-propelled guided-missile cruiser of the U.S. Navy. She was in commission (in active service) from October 1980 through July 1998. Her primary missions were in defending aircraft carrier task forces in air defense (AAW) and antisubmarine warfare (ASW) by using her guided missiles, radar systems, and sonar systems. Since Arkansas had the high speed and unlimited range provided by her nuclear reactors, she usually escorted the nuclear-powered aircraft carriers of the U.S. Navy.[citation needed]
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USS Arkansas underway in 1985 | |
History | |
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United States | |
Name | Arkansas |
Namesake | State of Arkansas |
Ordered | 31 January 1975 |
Builder | Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company |
Laid down | 17 January 1977 |
Launched | 21 October 1978 |
Sponsored by | Mrs. Dale Bumpers |
Acquired | 29 September 1980 |
Commissioned | 18 October 1980 |
Decommissioned | 7 July 1998 |
Stricken | 7 July 1998 |
Identification |
|
Motto | Defender of Opportunity |
Fate | Disposed of by the Ship-Submarine Recycling Program, completed on 1 November 1999 |
Badge | |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Virginia-class cruiser |
Displacement | 9,473 short tons |
Length | 585 ft (178 m) |
Beam | 63 ft (19 m) |
Draft | 30.5 ft (9.3 m) |
Speed | 30+ knots |
Range | Nuclear |
Complement | 473 officers and enlisted men |
Sensors and processing systems | |
Electronic warfare & decoys |
|
Armament |
|
Armor | none |
Aircraft carried | none |
With her Harpoon anti-ship missiles, Tomahawk missiles, and two 5-inch (127 mm) naval guns, USS Arkansas was also capable of attacking enemy surface ships, carrying out shore bombardments, and attacking land targets over 2,000 kilometers (1,200 mi) inland (with her Tomahawk cruise missiles in the latter case).[citation needed]
For her short-range self-defense, especially for defense against enemy anti-ship missiles, Arkansas carried two automated Phalanx radar-directed 20 millimeters (0.79 in) rapid-fire guns. Also, her two 5-inch rapid-fire naval guns had some capability for anti-aircraft defense. Her six torpedo tubes, which fired Mk 46 lightweight torpedoes, were for close-in, last-ditch defense against enemy submarines that had evaded her outer defense line of ASROC missiles, and the long-range ASW aircraft of her task force.[citation needed]
After USS Arkansas was decommissioned and all of her weapons, computers, sensors, communication equipment and other complex components, removed, her hulk was sent into the Navy's nuclear ship recycling program for the removal, recycling, and disposal of all of her fuel and other radioactive equipment, and this task was completed in Washington state on 1 November 1999, with the rest of her hulk sold as scrap metal.[citation needed]