was a nuclear-powered

Nuclear marine propulsion

Nuclear marine propulsion is propulsion of a ship by a nuclear reactor. Naval nuclear propulsion is propulsion that specifically refers to naval warships...

 version of the double-ended guided missile frigate. Originally a guided missile

Guided Missile

Guided Missile is a London based independent record label set up by Paul Kearney in 1994.Guided Missile has always focused on 'the underground', preferring to put out a steady flow of releases and developing the numerous GM events around London and beyond....

 destroyer leader, the class was re-designated guided missile cruiser in 1975. As with USS Long Beach (CGN-9)

Long Beach class cruiser

The Long Beach class cruiser is a single-ship class of the United States Navy. The class is noted as the world's first nuclear-powered surface combatant, and the last cruiser built in the US Navy to a cruiser design; all subsequent cruiser classes were built on scaled-up destroyer hulls, or, in...

 and USS Enterprise (CVN-65), Bainbridge was a single-ship class.

Statistically and mechanically speaking, Bainbridge (DLGN-25) was virtually identical to the Leahy-class except for the replacement of her four 1200 psi boilers with two D2G reactor

D2G reactor

The D2G reactor was a naval reactor used by the United States Navy to provide electricity generation and propulsion on warships. The D2G designation stands for:* D = Destroyer platform* 2 = Second generation core designed by the contractor...

s. Because of the greater maintenance requirements of 1960s nuclear reactors, Bainbridge carried 23 more crew members than Leahy.

The lessons learned on Bainbridge were later adapted to the next nuclear-powered ship, and the California and Virginia classes of nuclear-powered cruiser.