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The California class and Virginia class cruisers were two similar nuclear powered cruiser designs built for the United States in the 1970s. They had the distinction of being the first series multi-unit classes of nuclear powered cruisers for the Navy, but they also had the misfortune of being the last cruisers built before the fielding of AEGIS on the Ticonderoga class cruisers. This severely reduced their combat capabilities, and so while the ships were designed with a service life of forty years or more, none continued in service to see the new millennium, especially once AEGIS was fielded on the Arleigh Burke class destroyers.
Is there anything that could have been done to modernize the cruisers? Obvious candidates would be implementing some of the proposed features of the Strike Cruiser, keeping in mind the smaller hull. The addition of AEGIS would be another option as well. Of course a third option would be having a variation of the California/Virginia class as the platform the AEGIS cruisers.