Commissioned 50 years ago today on 16 February 1974, California was the lead of her two-ship class of nuclear-powered guided-missile destroyer leaders (redubbed as cruisers in June 1975 to counter the rise in Soviet destroyer-sized “cruisers”).
In her late career configuration, seen above in the image from the CGN-38 Veterans Assoc, California is seen with twin Phalanx 20mm CIWS and twin Mk141 quad Harpoon cans installed. This was added to her original pair of twin Mk.13 Standard (MR) “one-armed bandit” launchers, ASROC matchbox launcher, and Mk.46 ASW torpedo tubes.
The “Golden Grizzly” led a happy life and was present at a myriad of Cold War crises including two circumnavigations of the globe. Despite the fact that she had received a New Threat Upgrade package in a 1993 overhaul, she, and the rest of the Navy’s nuclear-powered cruisers, were axed as part of the Clinton-era cruiser slaughter to skimp on the cost of a mid-life refuel that would have added 20 years to her lifespan.
USS California was deactivated on 1 October 1998, just 24 years after being accepted, then decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 9 July 1999. She was disposed of in the U.S. Navy’s Nuclear-Powered Ship-Submarine recycling program at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. Her recycling and scrapping was completed on 12 May 2000.
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