A light cruiser is a type of small- or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to this smaller cruisers had been of the protected cruiser model, possessing armored decks only.
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The first small steam powered cruisers were built for the British Royal Navy with HMS Mercury launched in 1878.[1] Such second and third class protected cruisers evolved, gradually becoming faster, better armed and better protected. Germany took a lead in small cruiser design in the 1890s, building a class of fast cruisers copied by other nations. Such vessels were powered by coal-fired boilers and reciprocating steam engines and relied in part on the arrangement of coal bunkers for their protection. The adoption of oil-fired water-tube boilers and steam turbine engines meant that older small cruisers rapidly became obsolescent. Furthermore, new construction could not rely on the protection of coal bunkers and would therefore have to adopt some form of side armoring. The British Bristol group of Town-class cruisers (1909) were a departure from previous designs; with turbine propulsion, mixed coal and oil firing and a 2 inch protective armoured belt as well as deck. Thus, by definition, they were armoured cruisers, despite displacing only 4,800 tons; the light armored cruiser had arrived. The first true modern light cruisers were the Arethusa class (1911) which had all oil-firing and used lightweight destroyer-type machinery to make 29 knots (54 km/h).
By World War I, British light cruisers often had either two 6 inch (152 mm) and perhaps eight 4 inch (100 mm) guns, or a uniform armament of 6 inch (152 mm) guns on a ship of around 5,000 tons, while German cruisers progressed during the war from 4.1 inch (105 mm) to 5.9 inch (150 mm) guns.
The term light cruiser was given a definition by the London Naval Treaty of 1930. Light cruisers were defined as cruisers having guns of 6.1 inch (155 mm) or smaller, with heavy cruisers defined as cruisers having guns of up to 8 inch (203 mm). In both cases, the ships could not be greater than 10,000 tons.
In the World War II era, light cruisers had guns ranging from 5 inch (127 mm), as seen in the Atlanta-class anti-aircraft cruiser, to 6.1 inch, though the most common size by far was 6 inch. Heavy cruisers usually had a battery of 8 inch (203 mm) guns. In the years leading up to World War II, with the London Naval Treaty making it impossible to build a balanced heavy cruiser design within tonnage limits, this led to the construction of a great number of light cruisers of 10,000 ton with twelve to fifteen 6-inch (152 mm) guns that were otherwise identical to heavy cruisers.
Heavy cruiser construction was phased out in Britain, France and Italy during the mid 1930s. However, the breakout of World War II allowed nations to skirt the London Treaty and exceed the 10,000 ton limit. By the end of the war, the US Navy's ships classed as "large cruisers" had displacements of nearly 30,000 tons (the Alaska-class cruiser), while light cruisers stayed in the region of 10,000 tons (although sometimes reaching 12,000 or 13,000 tons). Most modern guided missile cruisers have a similar displacement (10,000 tons for Ticonderoga, 12,000 for Slava, 28,000 for Kirov).
Three light cruisers are still in existence as museum ships, and one is still used in active service by a navy - BAP Almirante Grau of the Peruvian Navy. The three ships preserved as museum ships are: HMS Belfast (1938) in London, HMS Caroline (1914) in Belfast, and USS Little Rock in Buffalo, New York. Similar ships include the protected cruisers Aurora (St Petersburg) and USS Olympia (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), and the bow of the Puglia (Italy).
In the United States Navy, light cruisers have the hull classification symbol CL. Both heavy cruisers and light cruisers were classified under a common CL/CA sequence after 1931, hence there are some missing hull numbers, see List of light cruisers of the United States. After the development of seaborne guided missiles in the 1950s, all remaining cruisers armed solely with guns, regardless of caliber were redesignated as "Gun Cruisers" (hull classification symbol CA), with guided missile cruisers (which generally carry some gun armament) gaining the new hull classification symbol CG. By the 1975 fleet realignment, all gun cruisers were out of the fleet.
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