¹⁄700

Niko Models have just announced the release of their 1/700 USS Canberra (CAG 2) 1967.

Check out these released images of the kitset.

It is at this stage anticipated that like most of Niko Models products this kitset will be a quality resin kit with photoetch and turned brass masts.

Details as to availability and price are yet to be confirmed.

We will of course update you with more detail as it comes to hand.

Ships History

USS Canberra (CA-70, ex-CAG-2, ex-CA-70) was a Baltimore class cruiser and later a Boston class guided missile cruiser of the United States Navy.

She served from 1943 until 1970, and participated in World War II and the Cuban Missile Crisis naval blockade.

The USS Canberra was named after the Royal Australian Navy's County class cruiser, HMAS Canberra, which was sunk during the Battle of Savo Island.

Canberra was laid down as a Baltimore class heavy cruiser by the Bethlehem Steel Company Fore River Shipyard at Quincy in Massachusetts on the 3rd of September 1941, launched on 19 April 1943 by Lady Alice C. Dixon and commissioned on 14 October 1943. Initially the cruiser was to be named Pittsburgh, but the name Canberra was chosen instead in honour of the Australian cruiser HMAS Canberra which was severely damaged by gunfire and torpedoes from Japanese warships and subsequently scuttled by USN warships at the Battle of Savo Island on the 9th of August 1942. The Australian Government returned this tribute by naming a new Tribal class destroyer, HMAS Bataan, in honour of the Battle of Bataan.

The USS Canberra operated with the Fast Carrier Task Force during the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944 and was torpedoed and severely damaged during the Battle of Formosa on the13th of October 1944.

Canberra was decommissioned on 7 March 1947 and berthed with the Pacific Reserve Fleet at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard at Bremerton in Washington.

On the 4th of January 1952 she was re-designated as a guided missile heavy cruiser (CAG-2) and towed to the New York Shipbuilding Corporation at Camden, New Jersey for conversion work that lasted from 30 May 1952 until 1 June 1956 and transformed her into a Terrier missile wielding Boston-class cruiser.

She was recommissioned on 15 June 1956 and home ported at Norfolk, Virginia. From 3 March until 24 October 1960 she made an 8-month round-the-world cruise to show the flag and demonstrate her missile capabilities to U.S. and Allied forces.
In 1962, she sailed south from Norfolk to participate in the "quarantine" during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

With the rapid advancement of missile technology in the 1960s, the Terrier missile system was obsolete by 1964.

During the Vietnam conflict,Canberra was home ported at San Diego. She deployed to Vietnam five times from 1965 to 1969 where her 8" and 5"guns provided support for US troops. During the deployments in 1967 and '68 the Canberra operated north of the DMZ shelling bridges,transport routes and shore installations.

On the 6th of April, 1967, a young seaman named Doug Hegdahl was accidentally blown overboard by one of the Canberra's 5 inch guns. He was captured by a North Vietnamese gunboat and imprisoned in the infamous Hanoi Hilton. Hegdahl's recollections of his time there would later serve as proof of atrocities committed by the North Vietnamese at POW camps.

During TET offensive, the Canberra went south to support the troops at Hue and fired 35,000 rounds in 31 days.

On the 1st of May 1968 the Canberra was re-designated back to CA-70 and continued to use her heavy guns in her last Vietnam deployment which ended in early January 1969.

USS Canberra was decommissioned on 2 February 1970 and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 31 July 1978. She was sold for scrap to National Metal on 31 July 1980 and broken up.

The ship's bell, however, was presented to Australian Prime Minister John Howard by US President George W. Bush on the 10th of September 2001 to commemorate 50 years of the ANZUS treaty. The bell is located at the Australian National Maritime Museum.

Images courtesy of Niko Models.
Ships History courtesy of Wikipedia.