With the end of combat in World War II at hand, construction of a number of warships came to a halt. Among them, the Northampton (CA- 125) would lay idle on the ways for virtually three years before her construction resumed. Work on her, the fourth of eight Oregon City-class heavy cruisers ordered on 7 August 1942 from Bethlehem Steel’s Fore River Yard at Quincy, Massachusetts, had been suspended on 11 August 1945 when the ship was 54% complete. A day later, sisters Cambridge, Bridgeport, Kansas City, and Tulsa (CA- 126 through -129) were cancelled outright. The Oregon City (CA-122), Albany (CA-123), and Rochester (CA-124) were completed and commissioned in 1946. The Northampton, being large and fast enough and also able to accommodate a sensor and armament suite that would contribute to fleet air defense, was recommended for the role of fleet strike force command ship in October 1945 by the Navy General Board.
When construction resumed on 1 July 1948, it was to a radically different design. In order to fit the large staff and extensive communications facilities required, an extra deck was added to the cruiser’s hull, bringing her overall length to 667 feet 1¼ inches and deepening the molded depth of the hull by nearly 8 feet to 50 feet 10 inches. The original 4- boiler, 4-shaft steam turbine propulsion plant was retained to provide 120,000 shaft horsepower, enough to drive her at over 33 knots on trials. An entirely new superstructure with two enclosed tower masts was added, with the foremast supporting the stabilized antenna for what was for many years to come the largest radar afloat, the AN/SPS-2, which had a range of about 300 nautical miles. The after mast supported the antenna for a zenith-search SPS-3 radar set, and on the superstructure abaft the mast was situated an AN/SPS-8 height-finder. The ship was thus well equipped for combat air control duties.
The world’s tallest unsupported pole mast, built of glass-reinforced plastic, was installed near the bow to support one end of a wire aerial array, while ten broadband sleeve-type whip antennas could support multiple communications channels. Initially, the ship was to have been armed with six twin 5-inch/54-caliber semi-automatic dual-purpose gun mounts, but the faster-firing single-barreled Mk 45 mount was substituted, its numbers reduced to four for space considerations. Also installed were four twin 3-inch/50-caliber dual-purpose mounts, an interim fit until they could be replaced by automatic 3-inch/70-caliber mountings. Ten (later reduced to six) twin 20mm cannon mounts were also planned but were never fitted.
Originally to have been classified as an AGC (Amphibious Force Flagship), the Northampton was instead classified in 1946 as Command Cruiser CLC-1, the “CL” indicating her status as a cruiser with guns of under 8-inch bore, and the “C” suffix for her command role. Launched on 27 January 1951, the ship was commissioned on 7 March 1953 and initially assigned to the Operational Development Force, Atlantic, for seven months of intensive trials of her vast complement of new equipment. Although assigned various flagship duties, including several stints as Second Fleet flagship, she proved an expensive luxury and by 1957 had been relegated to such duties as conducting midshipmen’s summer cruises and public-affairs visits to European ports.
Although studies continued through the early 1950s toward acquiring at least one additional strike force command ship, and Congress actually provided funds for converting the incomplete “Large Cruiser” Hawaii (CB-3) as CBC-1, increasing costs killed the program. The intensifying Cold War, however, gave the Northampton a new mission. During March 1961, the ship was selected to become the “Mobile National Emergency Command Post” (MNECP), later refined to the “National Emergency Command Post Afloat” (NECPA) to mollify the other armed forces. The NECPA was to act not only as an emergency refuge for the president in the event of general war but also to act as his command post as commander in chief of the armed forces.
To that end, the Northampton was reclassified as CC-1 on 15 January 1961 and extensively refitted, the ship re- emerging in 1963 with her long-range communications facilities greatly enhanced. Additional personnel accommodations necessitated removal of her unsatisfactory 3-inch/70-caliber gun mounts and the huge early-warning radar was removed in favor of an antenna for a long- range tropospheric-scatter communications system. Meanwhile, the Navy continued looking for additional ships suitable for NECPA duties and eventually selected the light fleet aircraft carriers Wright (CVL-49) and Saipan (CVL- 48) for conversion as CC-2 and CC-3, respectively. It soon became apparent, however, that the increasing numbers of ever-more-effective Soviet submarines and the appearance of long-range jet aircraft armed with anti-ship missiles made the open Atlantic no safe haven for the president and his huge VIP staff. The Saipan was reworked into a major communications relay ship as the Arlington (AGMR-2), a role that in turn soon disappeared with the advent of satellite communications. By the end of the 1960s, the NECPA concept was an anachronism, and the emergency presidential command post mission had been transferred to the Air Force. The Northampton was decommissioned to reserve on 1 April 1970, followed on 27 May by the Wright. Both were stricken on 31 December 1977.