Heavy cruiser
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A heavy cruiser is a large cruiser, usually with main guns of about 8 inches (203 mm) in caliber. The first heavy cruisers were built in the 1920s, and the last in the 1940s. Heavy cruisers were smaller than contemporary battleships and battlecruisers, but larger than other gun-armed warships.
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[edit] The first heavy cruisers
Heavy cruisers evolved from the light cruisers of World War I. The first heavy cruisers were the British Hawkins class (1915) of 9,750 tons that made 30 knots and were armed with seven 7.5 inch guns. These ships were directly descended from the preceding Birmingham (1911) group of Town class 5,440 ton light cruisers and at the time were referred to as "improved light cruisers". They remained the largest and most powerful cruisers in the world for several years.
The Washington Naval Treaty of 1921 sought to stop an arms race in warships. It restricted the construction of warships of more than 10,000 tons standard displacement or with armament greater than 8-inch (203 mm) guns. The major naval powers then started to build cruisers up to those limits. These were usually between 9,000 and 10,000 tons and were typically armed with eight to ten 8-inch guns. In 1930 the Washington Naval Treaty was extended by the London Naval Treaty which split the treaty definition of a cruiser into Heavy Cruiser with guns larger than 6.1 inch (155 mm) and "light cruiser" with smaller caliber guns, creating the heavy cruiser as a category of warship. The upper limit of 10,000 tons displacement still applied to both.
Most heavy cruisers had twin main gun turrets and torpedo tubes. HMS Norfolk was typical, with eight 8-inch guns in four turrets, eight 4-inch (102 mm) anti-aircraft guns, twenty-four smaller automatic anti-aircraft guns, and eight torpedo tubes. United States heavy cruisers were unique in mounting triple main gun turrets and no torpedo tubes, with a more powerful anti-aircraft battery. USS New Orleans was typical, with nine 8-inch guns in triple turrets, two forward and one aft, eight 5-inch (127 ) anti-aircraft guns, and eight machine guns.
In the 1930s several navies began to secretly flout the tonnage limits. The Japanese who were planning on withdrawing from the treaty built the Mogami class with a displacement of over 12,000 tons. She was designed so that her five 6.1-inch gun triple turrets could be replaced with twin 8-inch gun turrets and the ships of the class were rearmed in that way shortly before World War II. Japan withdrew from the Washington Naval Treaty in 1936, after which there was no effective regulation.
[edit] Later developments
By the mid 1930s, Britain, France and Italy had ceased building heavy cruisers. A weakness of heavy cruisers was that they were usually too weak in armour. Within the tonnage limits, mounting the heavier guns left them with insufficient protection against a ship with the same size weapons. Armament based on 8-inch (203 mm) guns was considered overall to be inferior to that using 6-inch (152 mm) guns. The latter fired faster and more of them could be carried for the same weight as for the 8 inch. The heavier shell of the 8 inch was little advantage because ships that could withstand a 6 inch (152 mm) hit were well-protected against 8 inch shells. This led to the construction of "light cruisers" of 10,000 tons with twelve to fifteen 6 inch guns that were otherwise identical to heavy cruisers.
Big gunned cruisers were still being built. The United States built heavy cruisers up to World War II, culminating in the heavily armored New Orleans class and USS Wichita, and continued building the larger Baltimore class during the war. The Germans built their Hipper class heavy cruisers of 14,000 tons, although the Anglo-German Naval Agreement was supposed to limit their shipbuilding.
The United States built the last heavy cruisers, finishing shortly after the war. The biggest were the Alaska class of "large cruiser", which were often referred to as battlecruisers because their size and armament approximated that of a small battleship. The Baltimore class consisted of seventeen ships, including six of the slightly different Oregon City class. The Des Moines class were the last heavy cruisers built, considerably larger, and with new rapid-firing 8-inch guns. Additionally, two aircraft carriers were built on a Baltimore-derived hull, the Saipan class (CVL-48 class).
The heavy cruisers fell out of use after World War II. Some existing US heavy cruisers lasted until the 1970s, sometimes after conversion to guided missile cruisers (US hull symbol CG).
In the United States Navy, the term first came into official use in 1930, with the hull classification symbol CA which it took over from the Armored cruiser. Earlier heavy cruisers had been given the CL designation (for light cruisers), and were then reclassified. With the development of guided missile cruisers in the 1950s, the designation system changed to designate cruisers by their primary armament. Primarily gun-armed cruisers were designated "gun cruisers" (hull classification symbol CA) while primarily missile-armed cruisers were designated "guided missile cruisers" (hull classification symbol CG).
Many other nations built or possessed heavy cruisers in the period 1920-1945, namely Britain, Japan, France, Italy, Germany, USSR, Spain, and Australia. They played a similar role to that of the armored cruisers 40 years earlier.
The only heavy cruiser in existence as of 2006 is the USS Salem (a museum ship).
[edit] In popular culture
The term "heavy cruiser" has seen a revival in science fiction.
In Star Trek, the USS Enterprise and Enterprise-A were ostensibly of the "Constitution class" of heavy cruisers; in Babylon 5, Earthforce fields the "Hyperion-class heavy cruiser"; in Andromeda the Andromeda Ascendant is a member of the Glorious Heritage class of heavy cruisers.
Other science fiction universes also boast classes of heavy cruisers among their warring factions, and the term seems to be a catch-all for larger, heavily-armed warships. Many of these spaceborne heavy cruisers also carry squadrons of fighters, adding a carrier role to their big guns. Technically, these space heavy cruisers have more in common with battleships than with cruisers, frequently being the most powerful ship their government or military force has to offer.
Various video games including the massive multiplayer game Navy Field and Homeworld also feature these ship types.
