Initially, there were plans to produce more than one
Enterprise class nuclear powered aircraft carrier, however these were cancelled due to budget cuts. The
USS Long Beach nuclear powered cruiser and
USS Bainbridge nuclear powered destroyer leader (later reclassified as a nuclear powered cruiser) were built around the same time, and in May 1964 all three ships came together to form the first nuclear powered naval unit, Task Force 1. The
Long Beach was equipped with the powerful
SCANFAR radar and
Talos missiles, making it something of a precursor to the later AEGIS system.
Historically, the United States didn't begin mass production of nuclear powered aircraft carriers until ordering
USS Nimitz in March 1967. Mass production of nuclear powered cruisers didn't start until May 1968, when
USS California was ordered. Assuming that nuclear powered ships could be mass produced in the late 1950s and early 1960s, what kind of impact would an earlier start to the nuclear navy have had on United States Navy planning and procurement? Might the United States Navy have retained nuclear powered cruisers, and perhaps even built nuclear powered destroyers?