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The cruiser USS ''Arkansas'' (CGN-41) was a nuclear-propelled guided-missile cruiser of the U.S. Navy. She was in commission (in active service) from October 1980 through July 1998. Her primary missions were in defending aircraft carrier task forces in air defense (AAW) and antisubmarine warfare (ASW) by using her guided missiles, radar systems, and sonar systems. Since ''Arkansas'' had the high speed and unlimited range provided by her nuclear reactors, she usually escorted the nuclear-powered aircraft carriers of the U.S. Navy. With her Harpoon antiship missiles, Tomahawk missiles, and two 5-inch naval guns, USS ''Arkansas'' was also capable of attacking enemy surface ships, carrying out shore bombardments, and attacking land targets over 2,000 kilometers inland (with her Tomahawk cruise missiles in the latter case). For her short-range self-defense, especially for defense against enemy antiship missiles, ''Arkansas'' carried two automated Phalanx radar-directed 20-millimeter rapid-fire guns. Also, her two 5-inch rapid-fire naval guns had some capability for antiaircraft defense. Her six torpedo tubes, which fired Mk 46 lightweight torpedoes, was for close-in, last-ditch defense against enemy submarines that had evaded her outer defense line of ASROC missiles, and the long-range ASW aircraft of her task force. After USS ''Arkansas'' was decommissioned and all of her weapons, computers, sensors, communication equipment, etc., removed, her hulk was sent into the Navy's nuclear ship recycling program for the removal, recycling, and disposal of all of her fuel and other radioactive equipment, and this task was completed in Washington State on 1 November 1999, with the rest of her hulk sold as scrap metal. ==Construction== The keel of ''Arkansas'' was laid on 17 January 1977 at the Newport News Shipbuilding Company, in Newport News, Virginia. This warship was launched on 21 October 1978, sponsored by Betty Bumpers, the wife of U.S. Senator Dale Bumpers of Arkansas). She was commissioned into the U.S. Navy on 18 October 1980, with Captain Dennis S. Read as her first commanding officer. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「USS Arkansas (CGN-41)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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