The fifth USS Truxtun (DLGN-35/CGN-35) was a nuclear powered cruiser in the U.S. Navy. She was launched as a destroyer leader (called a "frigate" at the time) and later reclassified as a cruiser. She was named after Commodore Thomas Truxtun (1755–1822). She was in service from May 1967 to September 1995.

The USS Truxtun was a nuclear-powered single-ended guided-missile cruiser (her missile armament was installed only aft, unlike "double-ended" cruisers with missile armament installed both forward and aft), based on a heavily modified version of the Belknap class. She was the only ship of her class. Truxtun was the third type of nuclear cruiser (all three were one-ship classes) to operate in the United States Navy, after Long Beach and Bainbridge, and was powered by the same D2G reactors as Bainbridge. Truxtun was originally designated as a nuclear-powered guided-missile destroyer leader (DLGN), but in the 1975 cruiser realignment, she was reclassified as a nuclear-powered guided-missile cruiser (CGN).^{[citation needed]}

Virtually identical to the Belknap class in weapons systems, Truxtun was powered by two D2G reactors rather than her sister class's four 1,200 psi boilers. This resulted in Truxtun being larger overall: 17 feet (5.2 m) longer, 3 feet (0.91 m) greater across the beam, a 2-foot-deeper (0.61 m) draft, and a displacement of almost 1,200 more tons. The lessons learned on the Truxtun class were later adapted to the next nuclear classes, the California and Virginia classes of nuclear-powered cruisers.^{[citation needed]}

Truxtun was commissioned with a 5-inch/54-caliber Mark 42 gun on the foredeck and a twin-rail Mk 10 Missile Launcher on the quarterdeck, for the RIM-2 Terrier missile. The Terrier system was later upgraded to utilizing the RIM-67A Standard missiles in place of the less reliable Terrier missile. The missile depot was located under the helicopter deck and could store 40 RIM-67 Standard and 20 RUR-5 ASROC missiles. Truxtun initially used two single 3-inch/50-caliber guns, however in 1979 these were replaced with two Harpoon missile launchers. The ASW suite of Truxtun originally included the un-manned DASH, but in 1971 the hangar was upgraded to LAMPS Mk. I and the SH-2 Seasprite helicopter. While Truxtun was not upgraded via the NTU program, two Phalanx CIWS systems were installed, and new electronics were installed during overhaul and nuclear refuelling in the mid-1980s.

Truxtun was laid down by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation at Camden in New Jersey on 17 June 1963, launched on 19 December 1964 by Mrs. Kirby H. Tappan and Mrs. Scott Umsted, and commissioned on 27 May 1967. Originally planned to be a Belknap-class destroyer leader, she was extensively modified in her design to become the fourth nuclear-powered ship in the Navy, and she is considered to be her own class. At just over 8,500 tons full load, Truxtun is the smallest nuclear-powered surface vessel to have served in the US Navy.^{[citation needed]}

Truxtun exited Camden on 3 June 1967 and headed for the West Coast. En route, she visited Yorktown, Virginia and Norfolk, Virginia; Guantánamo Bay, Cuba; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Mar del Plata, Argentina. Truxtun rounded Cape Horn on 10 July and entered the Pacific Ocean. After port calls at Valparaíso, Chile, and Mazatlán, Mexico, Truxtun reached Long Beach, California, her home port, on 29 July. After conducting trials there in late summer and early fall, she commenced shakedown training in November. She interrupted shakedown twice: on 10 and 11 November for Operation "Bell Anchor" and again from 27 November to 3 December for Exercise "Blue Lotus."^{[citation needed]}

The nuclear-powered warship completed her shakedown training and, on 2 January 1968, got underway for the Western Pacific. She made an overnight stop at Pearl Harbor on 7/8 January and arrived in Sasebo, Japan, on 19 January. Five days later, Truxtun and the aircraft carrier Enterprise departed Sasebo and headed for the Sea of Japan in response to North Korea's seizure of the American ship Pueblo. She operated in the Sea of Japan until 16 February when she headed south for her first line period off the coast of Vietnam. After an overnight stop at Subic Bay on 19–20 February, Truxtun set a course for "Yankee Station" in the Gulf of Tonkin. Truxtun spent the majority of the remainder of her deployment in the Far East operating off the coast of Vietnam. While in the combat zone, she conducted search and rescue (SAR) missions, stood guard against North Vietnamese air attacks as a positive identification radar zone (PIRAZ) picket ship, and served as plane-guard ship for carriers Enterprise, Bon Homme Richard, and Ticonderoga. Truxtun punctuated her line periods with calls at Singapore, Hong Kong, Danang, and Subic Bay. She departed Subic Bay on 6 July, steamed east toward the United States, and reentered Long Beach on 19 July.^{[citation needed]}

For the next four months, the warship operated along the U.S. West Coast. She acted as plane guard for Ranger, Kitty Hawk, Enterprise and Yorktown while those carriers conducted landing qualifications for pilots. In mid-November, Truxtun became an antisubmarine warfare (ASW) school ship, and she hosted training student sailors in the techniques of hunting submarines. Early in December, Truxtun returned to Long Beach to prepare for overhaul. In January 1969, she shifted to Bremerton, Washington, where she entered the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for refurbishing which lasted until April. The cruiser then resumed operations along the West Coast which continued until 23 September when she got underway for her second deployment with the 7th Fleet.^{[citation needed]}