USS Belknap CG 26 – History of the U.S. Navy's Guided Missile Cruiser & Navy Decals

USS Belknap CG 26 – History, Service Record & Navy Decals

The USS Belknap (CG-26) was the lead ship of the Belknap class of guided missile cruisers — the second generation of purpose-built American guided missile cruisers, succeeding the Leahy class with an improved design that combined a single-arm missile launcher forward with a 5-inch gun aft, giving the class both missile air defense and traditional gun firepower in a more versatile surface combatant. Named for Rear Admiral George Eugene Belknap, USN — a distinguished Civil War naval officer and pioneer of oceanic hydrographic surveying whose contributions to American naval science laid the foundation for the systematic charting of the world's deep ocean floors. But it is not primarily for her namesake's history that USS Belknap CG-26 is remembered — it is for one of the most dramatic incidents of survival, damage control, and restoration in the history of the Cold War United States Navy.

On the night of November 22, 1975, USS Belknap was operating in the Ionian Sea as part of the Sixth Fleet when she collided with the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) in a catastrophic accident that nearly destroyed her. Kennedy's flight deck, heavily loaded with aircraft, fuel, and ordnance, sliced into Belknap's superstructure with devastating effect — igniting jet fuel fires that engulfed the cruiser's aluminum superstructure and burned with a ferocity that threatened to destroy her completely. Six Belknap sailors and one Kennedy sailor were killed. The fires burned so intensely that Belknap's aluminum superstructure — used throughout the ship to save weight — literally melted, leaving her a smoldering, gutted hulk that many believed would have to be scrapped.

Instead, the Navy made the decision to rebuild her — a massive, years-long reconstruction at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard that essentially built a new ship on Belknap's surviving hull and machinery. The rebuilt Belknap emerged in 1980 with an all-steel superstructure replacing the aluminum that had burned so catastrophically, upgraded weapons systems, and modernized electronics — transformed from a near-total loss into one of the most capable surface combatants in the fleet. Her survival and restoration became a landmark case study in naval damage control, shipboard fire fighting, and the consequences of aluminum superstructure construction — lessons that directly influenced the design of subsequent American warships.

Namesake – Rear Admiral George Eugene Belknap

Rear Admiral George Eugene Belknap served with distinction in the Civil War, commanding USS Canonicus in monitor operations along the Confederate coast, and went on to a distinguished career in oceanic surveying and hydrography — conducting deep-sea sounding expeditions in the Pacific that made fundamental contributions to the scientific understanding of the ocean floor. His scientific work earned him international recognition and helped establish the U.S. Navy's tradition of oceanic exploration and hydrographic research that continues to this day.

Keel, Launch & Commissioning

Belknap's keel was laid down on February 5, 1962, at the Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine. She was launched on July 20, 1963, and commissioned into the U.S. Navy on November 7, 1964, as the lead ship of the Belknap class under hull designation CG-26 (originally designated DLG-26, reclassified as CG-26 in 1975).

Class & Design

USS Belknap was the name ship of the Belknap class — nine guided missile cruisers that improved on the all-missile Leahy-class design by incorporating a 5-inch/54 caliber gun aft alongside the single-arm Terrier (later Standard Missile) launcher forward, giving the class greater versatility for shore bombardment, surface warfare, and escort missions. At approximately 547 feet in length and displacing approximately 8,200 tons fully loaded, the Belknap class also carried the ASROC anti-submarine rocket system, torpedo tubes, and later upgrades including Harpoon anti-ship missiles and the Phalanx close-in weapon system.

Belknap served as the flagship of the Sixth Fleet for much of her career following her reconstruction — the most prestigious surface combatant command in the U.S. Navy's forward-deployed forces, representing American naval power in the Mediterranean throughout the critical final decade of the Cold War.

Cold War Service & Collision

Commissioned in November 1964, USS Belknap was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet and deployed extensively to the Mediterranean with the Sixth Fleet throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. The catastrophic collision with USS John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1975, ended that phase of her career and sent her to Philadelphia for the massive reconstruction that would take nearly five years to complete.

Returning to service in May 1980 after her extraordinary reconstruction, the rebuilt Belknap was assigned as flagship of Commander, Naval Forces Europe / Commander, Sixth Fleet — one of the most prestigious commands in the U.S. Navy — homeported at Gaeta, Italy, the traditional homeport of the Sixth Fleet flagship. In that role, she represented the full authority and presence of American naval power in the Mediterranean and European waters through the Cold War's most consequential final decade — the years of the Reagan naval buildup, the Lebanon crisis, the Gulf of Sidra confrontations with Libya, and the final collapse of the Soviet empire.

Decommissioning

USS Belknap was decommissioned on November 26, 1995, after more than 31 years of commissioned service — a career of extraordinary drama, from her commissioning through her near-destruction and remarkable resurrection to her decade as the flagship of American naval power in the Mediterranean.

Legacy

For the sailors who served aboard Belknap — before and after her reconstruction — she represents one of the most remarkable stories in the history of the Cold War U.S. Navy: a ship that should have been scrapped, rebuilt instead into the flagship of American naval power in Europe, and serving with distinction through the Cold War's triumphant conclusion. Her near-destruction and rebirth, and the lessons her ordeal taught about shipboard fire fighting and aluminum superstructure vulnerability, made USS Belknap one of the most consequential ships in the history of American naval design and damage control. Named for the hydrographer who charted the ocean floor, Belknap herself charted a course from catastrophe to restoration that is without equal in the annals of the Cold War Navy.

Shop USS Belknap CG 26 Navy Gifts & Decals

Honor your service or give a meaningful gift to a USS Belknap veteran with our full line of USS Belknap CG 26 products:

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