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The USS Fall River (CA-131) was one of the originally six Baltimore-class heavy cruisers selected for conversion to missile cruisers. For some reason, the almost brand-new vessel, which had enjoyed only about two-and-a-half years of active service before being mothballed at the end of 1947, was ultimately rejected and the Chicago was selected instead.

But, what if one of the many projects that the USN entertained but ultimately had to abandon due to fiscal constraints would have borne fruit: in 1955/56, the navy studied the feasibility of converting one or to Baltimores into a heavy cruiser equivalent of the Cleveland Talos conversions.

I selected the USS Fall River to represent this project and gave her the designation CAG-3, to pair her in with the previous missile cruisers Boston (CAG-1) and Canberra (CAG-2). As such the Fall River retains her forward battery of six 8" guns, and has six 5" guns in three twin gun houses. She also has eight 3" guns in four open twin mounts. The whole aft section of the ship was rebuilt, resulting in a large, long and tall continuous deck-house with a ready room and a generous magazine beneath capable of storing 102 Talos long-range missiles.
The conversion otherwise is even more austere in certain aspects than the Boston's; she retains her two slim funnels. A new bridge, similar to the earlier CAGs allowed the ship to serve as flagship.


Here is Fall River represented as of 1970, with the SPS-8 heightfinder radar replaced by the SPS-52 long-range 3D radar on top of her middle pole mast, and several early SatCom antennas.

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My Avatar:Петр Алексеевич Безобразов (Petr Alekseevich Bezobrazov), Вице-адмирал , царская ВМФ России(1845-1906) - I sign my drawings as Ari Saarinen

Nice work Bezobrazov!

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Excellent work.

Nice work.

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nice work, however I do wonder how it can be that the hull, funnels, parts of the superstructure and the bow guns and fittings are identical to http://shipbucket.com/images.php?dir=Re ... 201945.png this drawing, while Colosseum is not credited? I was about to ask why the existing Baltimore class was not used as base drawing, when I spotted that it was? :S

I also noted your Mk 7 missile magazine is significantly higher then that on the parts sheet, any particular reason for that? wondering because these systems were basically 'bolt on', to the point that the Mk 7 GMLS is exactly the same size as the Mk 9 GMLS (except in width) , so the conversion from the one to the other was possible. The superstructure you have here seems to suggest this consideration was not taken into account here?

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Drawings are credited with J.Scholtens
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Awesome job...a beautiful ship, as always!

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MS State Guard - 08 March 2014 - 28 January 2023

The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

#FJB

Looks cool, my suggestions would be to use the updated Mk.37 directors available in the USN parts (and also the missile guidance directors and Talos reload crane have been updated).

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USN components, camouflage colors, & reference links (World War II only)

Do you know if the stern hangar would have been retained? The Albanys kept it.

Drawing subsequently updated, adding a 1970 version (post-dating the previous one to the year 1963; a few years after her commissioning)

erik_t: yes, while not explicitly mentioned in the sources, I'm sure that the original hangar would have been retained; albeit slightly modified, since the sliding door would not have been possible to keep, the area needing to be flat to create a heliopad. In fact, the hangar in its original form was retained in the flagship/Regulus conversions, where it was used to store three Regulus 1 cruise missiles.

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My Avatar:Петр Алексеевич Безобразов (Petr Alekseevich Bezobrazov), Вице-адмирал , царская ВМФ России(1845-1906) - I sign my drawings as Ari Saarinen

Nice work!

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MS State Guard - 08 March 2014 - 28 January 2023

The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

#FJB