At the height of the Cold War, the US Navy used a historic round-the-world operation to show off its new nuclear force

• On July 31, 1964, three US Navy ships set off on a mission to sail around the world.
• The ships were all nuclear-powered and composed the first task force of its kind in history.

On July 31, 1964, three US Navy ships set sail from Mallorca on a two-month voyage around the world.

The group, called Task Force One, was unique. Each ship — the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, the cruiser USS Long Beach, and the frigate USS Bainbridge — was the first and only vessel of its class and was nuclear-powered, making TF-1 the first all-nuclear naval task force ever to set sail.

The ships represented what many hoped would be the future of US Navy surface warfare design, and their deployment, called Operation Sea Orbit, was meant to demonstrate the US Navy's mastery of nuclear propulsion and the value of a nuclear naval force on a global scale.

Nuclear-powered warships

The benefits of nuclear-powered vessels had quickly become clear after the US Navy commissioned the first nuclear-powered attack submarine, USS Nautilus, in 1954.

With no need to refuel, nuclear-powered vessels were limited only by their ability to resupply and the endurance of their crew and machinery.

By the late 1950s, the Navy had fully embraced nuclear-powered submarines and started working on nuclear-powered surface combatants. Construction began on USS Long Beach in 1957 and it entered service in 1961, becoming the world's first nuclear-powered surface warship. A guided-missile cruiser — still a relatively new kind of warship — Long Beach had two C1W nuclear reactors.

At 721 feet long and with a crew of 1,160, Long Beach was armed with two RIM-2 Terrier surface-to-air missile launchers and one RIM-8 Talos surface-to-air missile launcher. It also had one RUR-5 anti-submarine rocket launcher, two 5-inch guns, and two triple-tubed torpedo launchers.

Long Beach's distinctive box-shaped superstructure was designed to house the SCANFAR phased-array radar system, the first phased-array radar deployed by the US Navy. SCANFAR was composed of the AN/SPS-32 radar for air-surveillance/search duties and the AN/SPS-33 radar for target tracking.

Two months after Long Beach entered service, the Navy commissioned USS Enterprise. With eight Westinghouse A2W reactors, Enterprise was the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in history. It was just over 1,100 feet long and had a crew of about 4,600 sailors and aviators. Its air wing was usually about 60 aircraft, but it could carry up to 90. It also had the SCANFAR system.

USS Bainbridge was commissioned in 1962 and was the first nuclear-powered ship of its kind in service. (Originally considered a frigate, Bainbridge was reclassified as a cruiser in 1975.) Powered by two D2G reactors, Bainbridge was 565 feet long and had a crew of about 500. It was armed with two RIM-2 launchers, two twin-barreled 3-inch guns, one RUR-5 ASROC, and six torpedo tubes.

Enterprise was meant to project US airpower anywhere in the world, while Long Beach and Bainbridge were meant to deal with air, surface, and submarine threats. Their nuclear reactors meant that each ship could do their mission — whether it was launching aircraft or chasing submarines — for much longer than their predecessors.

Operation Sea Orbit

Operation Sea Orbit was meant to demonstrate the utility of nuclear propulsion. The ships were to circumnavigate the globe without refueling, stopping only at six ports along the way.

The task force would conduct exercises at sea and in the air, showing off US naval might in a manner similar to President Theodore Roosevelt's Great White Fleet in 1907. It would also test how long a US Navy force could operate independently of ports in general.

The ships met in the Mediterranean on May 13. After a series of tests to ensure they could communicate and operate together, they sailed on July 31 under the command of Rear Adm. Bernard Strean.

The task force sailed along the African coast and crossed the Arabian Sea before arriving in Karachi in late August. The ships then sailed along the west coast of India, south of Indonesia, and to Australia, where Bainbridge docked in Fremantle, Long Beach in Melbourne, and Enterprise in Sydney.

After reassembling, TF-1 briefly stopped in Wellington and then sailed across the Pacific to Cape Horn before heading north. The task force visited Rio de Janeiro and then returned to the US, with Bainbridge sailing to Charleston and Enterprise and Long Beach to Norfolk. They all arrived by October 3.

During the 65-day journey, the ships sailed more than 30,000 nautical miles and crossed the equator four times, all without refueling or taking on more supplies. There were no breakdowns or casualties, though two aircraft crashed due to mechanical failures.

The task force conducted air and naval exercises with the South African, Pakistani, British, and Australian navies and flew aerial demonstrations over Karachi, Fremantle, Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Wellington, Rio de Janeiro, and San Juan.

Nuclear navy

Afterward, Strean said the operation demonstrated conclusively "the special global mobility and self-sufficiency of nuclear powered surface ships."

Enterprise, Long Beach, and Bainbridge had shown they could deploy for extended periods and remain on station almost indefinitely without regular refueling or resupply while carrying a massive amount of firepower — qualities that were highly desired by US naval leaders who worried about ports being damaged or destroyed during a nuclear war.

The US Navy ultimately built seven more nuclear-powered guided-missile cruisers, with the last entering service in 1980. After the Cold War, the Navy decided the expense of nuclear-powered cruisers was no longer justified and canceled their mid-life refueling. They were all decommissioned between 1993 and 1999.

The Navy has continued building nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, however. Enterprise was followed by 10 Nimitz-class carriers, and the Navy now has one Ford-class carrier in service with two more under construction.

The Soviet navy also built nuclear-powered surface warships. Its four Kirov-class battlecruisers are the largest surface combatants in history other than aircraft carriers and are arguably the most heavily armed warships ever made.

Two of those battlecruisers were decommissioned in the 1990s. The third, Admiral Nakhimov, has been undergoing a refit since 2014. The fourth, Pyotr Velikiy, is in active service, making it the world's only active nuclear-powered surface warship that isn't an aircraft carrier.