THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 8, 1994 TAG: 9407080538
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
It was the first nuclear-powered warship, it made the first successful launch of a Tomahawk cruise missile in 1986 and it was the U.S. flagship during the Persian Gulf War in 1991.
But on Thursday the guided-missile cruiser Long Beach was just another Navy ship heading for the scrap heap.
Work-hungry Newport News Shipbuilding embraced the Long Beach Thursday, quickly navigating the craft into drydock. On Wednesday, the massive Peninsula shipyard was awarded the $83.6 million contract to deactivate the fighting ship.
The Long Beach contract signals Newport News Shipbuilding's scramble to diversify. In the 1980s the company focused largely on naval ship construction.
Newport News Shipbuilding has seen its workload slacken since the Cold War ended and Navy shipbuilding work fell off. Employment at the yard has fallen from a peak of about 30,000 in the mid-1980s to 21,800 at the end of 1993. The yard announced employment will fall to 14,000 by the end of 1995.
The Long Beach job is scheduled to be completed in August 1995.
The shipyard will shut down and remove the Long Beach's two nuclear reactors, drain all the ship's systems and remove most of its weapons electronics.
``It's very good work for us because it's consistent with our core business,'' said yard spokesman Jack Schnaedter.
Newport News has deactivated several nuclear-powered submarines and has nearly finished the refueling of the Enterprise, the first nuclear-power aircraft carrier.
When the work on the Long Beach is completed, it will be moved back to Norfolk before it is towed to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard to be scrapped.
The Long Beach was built by Bethlehem Steel Co. at its Sparrow Point yard near Baltimore. Commissioned in 1961, it was also the first warship with a guided missile battery.
The Navy decommissioned the Long Beach on Saturday at Norfolk Naval Base.
Besides aircraft carriers, the Navy no longer builds nuclear-powered surface ships. The Navy today has opted for ships propelled by gas-turbine engines that are less expensive to build, operate and maintain.
After the Long Beach is deactivated, the Navy will have five remaining nuclear-powered cruisers: the South Carolina, the Mississippi, the California, the Arkansas and the Truxton. The Truxton is scheduled for deactivation next year. The South Carolina, which was just refueled and updated, has another 20 years of life.
The others will likely be deactivated when they need refueling. The Navy has already deactivated two nuclear-powered cruisers, the Texas and Virginia. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
by CNB