Крейсер управляемых ракет «Лихи» (USS Leahy)

Leahy class Guided missile cruiser

USS Leahy (DLG/CG 16) was the lead ship of a new class of destroyer leaders in the United States Navy. Named for Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy, she was commissioned on 4 August 1962 as DLG 16, a guided missile frigate, and reclassified as CG 16, a guided missile cruiser, on 30 June 1975. From 1962 to 1976, Leahy operated as a unit of the Atlantic Fleet and from 1976 to 1993 as a unit of the Pacific Fleet. She made six Mediterranean deployments (Sixth Fleet), two UNITAS Latin America cruises and eight Western Pacific deployments (Seventh Fleet), completed three Panama Canal transits, and crossed the equator over a dozen times. She traveled the seas from the easternmost end of the Mediterranean to the westernmost edge of the Indian Ocean. She steamed far north to Leningrad, Russia, and the Aleutian Islands; and far south for two passages through the Straits of Magellan. Over the course of her sixteen major deployments, Leahy made port calls on six continents—North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. Leahy served longer than any other ship of her class. After more than 31 years of active service all over the globe, the "Sweet 16" was decommissioned on 1 October 1993. After another 11 years in the reserve fleet, she was scrapped in Brownsville, Texas, in 2005.

Leahy was the first of a new "double ender" class fitted with Terrier (later Standard ER) missile launchers fore and aft, and the first and only frigate class designed without a main gun battery for shore bombardment or ship vs. ship engagements. The gun armament was reduced in order to carry a larger missile load. One of the principal missions of these ships, like their predecessors, the , was to form part of the anti air (AAW) and anti submarine (ASW) screen for carrier task forces while also controlling aircraft from the carrier by providing vectors to assigned targets. Leahy carried over the propulsion plant of the Farragut class, fitted into a longer hull designed with a knuckled "hurricane" bow that reduced plunging in rough seas, thus keeping her forecastle dry as needed to operate the forward missile launcher. Other features included an expanded electrical plant and increased endurance. A major design innovation was the use of "macks"—combined masts and stacks—on which the radars could be mounted without smoke interference. Close in anti aircraft defense consisted of a pair of twin MK 22 3 inch/50 caliber guns; anti submarine armament consisted of RUR 5 ASROC and two triple MK 32 torpedo mounts. The 3 inch gun mounts were replaced with Harpoon anti ship missiles (ASM) and the Phalanx CIWS during an overhaul in 1981. Leahy was laid down by Bath Iron Works Corp., Bath, Maine, 3 December 1959; launched 1 July 1961; sponsored by Mrs. Michael J. Mansfield, wife of Senator Mansfield, Montana, Senate Majority Leader; and commissioned 4 August 1962. For the traditional "mast stepping" ceremony during construction, an 1875 silver dollar was placed beneath the forward mack to honor the birth year of Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy.