I served on USS LONG BEACH 1979-80 and and USS ENTERPRISE 1983-85.
The other ship in the famous photo is USS BAINBRIDGE. Never stepped foot aboard that ship.
If you look at LONG BEACH and ENTERPRISE - identical superstructure with fixed phased array radar box, the progenitor to AEGIS.
LONG BEACH could conduct Air Traffic Control for ENTERPRISE if it had to. Thesis - flight deck ok but superstructure damaged - ship could operate and steer below decks and the flight deck managed by an escort vessel. That's a lot of structure - so it was Aluminum to save weight = ship's CALL SIGN was ALCOA.
You don't want that on fire, trust me.
Notice USS LONG BEACH was built a Cruiser, named after a city, like USS CHICAGO, USS OKLAHOMA CITY - 720 feet long.
USS BAINBRIDGE was a Destroyer Leader (DLGN) when built and was named after a person - 565 feet long.
("That kind of money buys a CRUISER" - Senate Armed Services Committee)
Both called Cruisers by the Navy - the only Cruiser sized nuclear vessel ever built was LONG BEACH. All Virginia and California class ships were similarly small as original DLGNs Bainbridge and Truxtun.
In the late 50s when these were built - there was one large reactor for surface ships.
Built by Westinghouse. The plant was A1W (Aircraft Carrier Westinghouse 1st design)
or C1W (Cruiser Westinghouse 1st design)
Identical on the reactor side, the steam side was different.
Aircraft Carrier has Cat Risers - steam lines from the plants to the Catapult Accumulators.
Aircraft Carrier has such large propulsion turbines that 2 reactors supply 1 main propulsion turbine. (8 reactors, 4 turbines)
Cruisers being much smaller have a reactor dedicated to a propulsion turbine. (2 reactors, 2 turbines)
Supporting the DLGN narrative above, Bainbridge, Truxtun, were D1G reactors, Virginia and California Class cruisers were D2W.
(No Cs in the bunch)
USS ENTERPRISE 8 reactors required over 450 nukes to keep in service.
USS NIMITZ Class 2 more powerful reactors, were staffed very similar to a Cruiser - less than 200.
When they decommissioned ENTERPRISE - that freed up the next two Aircraft Carrier's crew.
FORD class operates with fewer, they say. That's the trend. Automation - and I hope it can take a hit.
