The Albany-class guided-missile cruisers were converted and heavy cruisers of the United States Navy. All original superstructure and weapons were removed and replaced under project SCB 172. The converted ships had new very high superstructures and relied heavily on aluminum to save weight. Class description The conversion was extensive, stripping the ships down to their hulls, removing all armament and the ship's superstructure. , an , was converted at Boston Naval Shipyard starting in January 1959 and recommissioned as CG-10 on November 3, 1962. , a , was converted at San Francisco Naval Shipyard starting in July 1959 and was recommissioned as CG-11 on May 2, 1964. was originally slated to be CG-12, but was converted instead. Columbus was converted at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard beginning in September 1959 and recommissioning as CG-12 on December 1, 1962. and were also proposed for conversion to CG-13 and CG-14, but those plans were dropped because of the high cost of the conversion and capabilities of newer guided-missile frigates. Weapons and systems The weapon systems carried included the Mk 77 missile fire-control system with four AN/SPG-49 fire-control radars and two Mk 12 twin launchers for their armament of 104 Talos long-range surface-to-air missiles, one forward and one aft. These cruisers also carried an armament of 84 shorter-ranged Tartar missiles launched from two Mk 11 twin launchers, one to the port of and one to the starboard of the cruiser's main superstructure. The Tartar missiles were controlled by the Mk 74 missile fire-control system with four AN/SPG-51 fire-control radars. Some space was allocated on these cruisers amidships abaft the after stack for the possible installation of eight Polaris missiles, but the concept to add these ballistic missiles was dropped in mid-1959. For anti-submarine warfare (ASW), one eight-cell Mk 112 "matchbox" ASROC missile launcher was installed amidships on each of these cruisers, located between their two stacks. Also for ASW purposes, two triple Mk 32 torpedo tubes for the Mk 46 ASW torpedo were installed. These cruisers were initially converted into all-missile warships with no naval guns, but later on, two open-mount Mk 24 38 calibre guns were added to the port side and the starboard side, near their aft exhaust stacks. In the late 1960s Chicago and Albany underwent major engineering overhauls under SCB 002 and both the missile systems (Talos and Tartar) had new digital fire control system upgrades to handle the increasing