Lao Zhou
Abstract: Recently, two American cruisers "Antitan" cruisers (CG-54) and "Chancellosville" (CG-62) passed through Taiwan Strait . Today we will talk about the hull number of the US Navy cruiser, as well as the ship codes CA, CL and CG, respectively, which mean?
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Recently, two US cruisers "Antitan" cruisers (CG-54) and "Chancellosville" (CG-62) passed through the Taiwan Strait. Today we will talk about the hull number of the US Navy cruiser, as well as the ship code numbers CA, CL and CG, respectively?
Let’s talk about the hull number first. The so-called hull number, as the name implies, is written on the side of the ship, basically the number written on the side of the ship’s head. In many news photos, you can see that the warship 's bow ship has a striking number, which is the hull number. On the U.S. military aircraft carrier , the hull number is also written on the superstructure of the ship island and the flight deck, which is to facilitate pilots to identify in the air. Of course, during the war, these hull numbers will be erased to avoid being identified by the other party.
Some countries’ naval hull numbers only have Arabic numerals, such as China and Japan. Taking the Chinese Navy as an example, the hull number of the first ship of the 055 class destroyer, "Nanchang", is 101. As for the ship type, it is differentiated by different numerical rules. The hull numbers of destroyers are 1XX and three digits starting with 1; the hull numbers of frigate are 5XX and three digits starting with 5; the hull numbers of landing ship are 9XX and three digits starting with 9...
The hull numbers of US Navy ships are composed of English letters and numerical numbers. The English letters represent the type of warships. Take these two cruisers as an example. The hull numbers of the "Antitan" are CG-54, and LG represents the missile cruiser . However, there are only numbers on the side of the ship, and no English letters are marked.
Before 1920, the letter warship names of the US Navy were mainly divided into six categories, namely:
B ( battleship , the first letter of the English battleship "Battleship");
C (cruiser, the first letter of the English cruiser "Cruiser");
D (destroyer, the first letter of the English destroyer "Destroyer"); ”);
S ( submarine , the first letter of the English submarine "Submarine");
M (shallow water heavy gunboat, English shallow water heavy gunboat "Monitors";
ACR ( armored cruiser , the English armored cruiser "Armored Cruiser” abbreviation.
Since many new ship types appeared in World War I , the classification of these six categories is obviously not enough. Therefore, the US Navy began to implement double-letter abbreviation to represent the ship type code after 1920. Before, the single-letter ship type code number was simply repeated with letters. For example, the battleship's synonym changed from B to BB, the destroyer's synonym changed from D to DD, and the submarine's synonym changed from S to S.
However, the alphabetical synonym of cruisers did not simply change from C to CC, because cruisers themselves are a large category, and can be subdivided into many subcategories below. This goes to Cruisers, cruisers first originated from the "fast sailing ship" in the sailing era, and were responsible for patrol, reconnaissance, alert, and escort in the ocean fleet. At that time, there was no name for the cruiser, but it was distinguished by the number of artillery on the warship. In the 16th century, the British Royal Navy stipulated that the standard for fast sailing ships was to be equipped with 38 to 50 artillery and displacement of about 1,000 tons.
The English "Cruisers" of cruisers first appeared in the 17th century. At that time, this word was not so much a type of warship, but a combat mission undertaken by warships. "Cruisers" refers to patrol and escort in the long sea.
In the 18th century, "Cruisers" gradually became a warship type title. The term cruiser was well-known and used to define a light armed warship that was light and fast and capable of long-distance cruise (only a single-layer gun deck). This kind of warship is mainly responsible for reconnaissance, escort and breaking the warship.
Entering the nineteenth century, steam power began to gradually be applied to warships. The cruisers using steam power began to appear in the 1840s. They were initially exploratory and experimental, but gradually became practical after the 1850s. There were cruisers using steam power, equipped with large caliber naval guns , and the hull was also large. Then armor protection appeared, so that modern cruisers basically appeared. Armored cruisers are collectively called " protective cruiser ". The earliest armor protection is to lay a layer of horizontal armor on key parts such as the cabin and ammunition compartment, which is called "flat armor cruiser". Because the protection performance of a layer of flat armor is not ideal, it is improved to a layer of "dome" armor with arcs on both sides of the middle high and on both sides. Cruisers using this armor are called " Dome Cruiser .
Modern cruisers emerged, making up for the gap between light ships such as torpedo boats and large ship battleships. Cruisers are enough to cope with the attacks of light ships and become the most effective personal guard of large ships. This role continues to today's aircraft carrier formation. At the same time, large ships such as battleships are relatively slow in speed and fuel consumption. Large, so it is usually not large to enter the far-sea activities. If you want to carry out long-sea operations, you must rely on supply fleets, which has brought many restrictions to the actual combat application of battleships. Cruisers are relatively fast in speed and do not consume much fuel, so they are very suitable for ocean-going operations. In addition, the application of steam power, large-caliber naval guns and armor protection have greatly improved the combat effectiveness of cruisers. By the 20th century, cruisers have become the second-class main warship second only to battleships, and occupy a very important position in the navies of various countries.
Return to the name of the ship type of the US Navy cruiser, and after adopting the name of the double-letter ship type, it is really There is a synonym for CC, but it is not a cruiser, but a synonym for battlecruiser . Although the English word for battlecruiser is "Battlecruiser" and the initial letter is not C. According to the rationale, the ship type should be BC, the US Navy adopted CC, because the US Navy insisted that the combat missions and roles undertaken by battlecruisers should be real cruisers, so CC is used as a synonym for cruisers to represent battlecruisers.
After the end of World War I, cruisers were divided into heavy cruisers and light cruiser two types. The main gun caliber is above 203 mm and the displacement is above 10,000 tons. The main gun caliber is above 152 mm and the displacement is below 203 mm and the displacement is below 10,000 tons. Because of this era, cruisers have become the main battleship second only to battleships, so in several naval treaties in the 1920s, the number and tonnage of cruisers of various naval powers was restricted.
The US Navy used CA as the synonym for heavy cruisers. In fact, CA was an armored cruiser before 1931 (English: "Armored"). Cruiser) Synonyms. With the development of the times, armored cruisers gradually withdrew from the stage of history, so the US Navy used the synonym of CA on heavy cruisers. Although the English word for heavy cruisers is "Heavy Cruiser" and there is no letter A in the middle, CA is still used. After all, heavy cruisers are also armored.
Light cruisers are "Light Cruiser", so the ship type synonym is naturally CL.
By the 1960s, missile gradually replaced artillery and became the most important armed force of warships. Cruisers mainly equipped with missiles also came into being. The English word for missile cruisers is "Guided Missile". Cruiser, the ship type is CG. The hull numbers of the "Antitan" and "Chancellosville" that traveled through the Taiwan Strait this time are CG and numbered, so both of them are missile cruisers. After
nuclear power was applied to warships, the nuclear power cruiser also appeared.From the 1960s to the 1990s, the United States built a total of nine nuclear-powered cruisers. These nuclear-powered cruisers are all based on missiles, so the official name of the ship type is the nuclear-powered missile cruiser. The English name is "Guided Missile Cruiser Nuclear". The ship type letter is CGN, which has an additional nuclear-power abbreviation suffix N compared to the CG of the missile cruiser.
In addition, when carrier-based helicopter appeared, cruisers with relatively large tonnage naturally became an ideal carrier platform, so helicopter cruisers soon appeared, which was "Cruiser with an assigned Helicopter" in English, and the ship type was CH. However, later, carrier-based helicopters were widely used on surface ship . Not only cruisers, but also destroyers and frigates could soon carry helicopters, so the name of the helicopter cruiser was just a flash in the pan and existed for a short time. Now, basically no one knows it.
Therefore, the types of ships of the US Navy cruiser include CA, CL, CG, CGN and CH, which is a bit complicated.
Finally, let’s talk about the naming of US Navy cruisers. According to the naming rules of US Navy warships, battleships use state names, destroyers use human names, and submarines use marine creatures, mainly the names of various fish. Cruisers use place names, but their ranks are one level lower than the state names of battleships. They are all city names. For example, the heavy cruiser "Chicago" (CA-29), the heavy cruiser "Houston" (CA-30), the light cruiser "Helena" (CL-50), the light cruiser "Atlanta" (CL-51), the nuclear-powered cruiser "Long Beach" (CGN-9), and the Bainbridge" (CN-25) are named after cities, regardless of whether heavy cruiser, light cruiser or nuclear-powered cruiser is named.
Ticonderoga-class cruiser , which was built in the 1980s, is still named after the place name, but not the city name, but the place where famous battles took place in American history. Ticonderoga is a classic battle in which the mainland army attacked the Ticonderoga Fort during the War of Independence. The names of the "Antitan" and "Chancellosville" that sailed through the Taiwan Strait are also two famous battles. Antitan originated from the Antitan Battle in the Civil War. Within one day, the Southern Army suffered about 10,000 casualties and the Northern Army had about 12,000 casualties, totaling up to 22,000. It is known as the bloodiest day in the Civil War. Chanthellosville also originated from the Civil War, and Jackson, a famous Southern Army general, was seriously slandered in this battle.
However, the Ticonderoga-class cruiser was built from the 1980s to the 1990s. It is now an old ship with a age of 30 or 40 years, and its performance is obviously out of date. Of the 27 ships of the same class, 5 have retired before 2005, and another one was retired in August this year, and the remaining 21 will be retired in the next five years. After the Ticonderoga class, the United States did not build new cruisers, which means that when the Ticonderoga class is all retired, the U.S. Navy will no longer have active cruisers.
Looking at the world today, in addition to the United States, Russia also retains five cruisers built in the Soviet era - among which the "Moscow" was sunk by the Ukrainian army during the Russian-Ukrainian war in April this year, and there are still 4 more ships. Moreover, Russia has no plans to build a new generation of cruisers in the future.
When all these cruisers are retired, the cruiser, a type of ship that once gallops across the ocean, will also end up sadly and withdraw from the stage of history.
(The picture in this article is from the Internet)
Lao Zhou, whose real name is Zhou Ming, has used the online name Guangting. He has been engaged in military history research for a long time. He has served as a guest of the military column on Phoenix TV and Shanghai TV many times. More than 20 military books have been published, and you can consult and purchase them in the WeChat store "Zhibingtang Bookstore" and the Taobao online store "Zhibingtang Bookstore". There is now a personal column "Lao Zhou Military" on Himalaya to produce military audio programs. The "Lao Zhou Xin Observation" video account has been opened on major video platforms to interpret military hot spots, so please support it.
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