The Cleveland-class was a group of light cruisers built for the United States Navy during World War II.

A development of the preceding Brooklyn-class cruiser, the Cleveland class was designed with increased cruising range, anti-aircraft armament, and torpedo protection compared with earlier U.S.

The simulations showed that without fire control directors and computers, the ships of the fleet would be almost helpless against the density of aircraft attacks envisioned in any future war.

[5] As World War II was to prove, the pre-war assumptions were optimistic as eventually, every anti-aircraft gun platform above 20 mm would end up having remote power, with fire control and radar aiming.

This also gave room for the enlargement of the bridge spaces to accommodate the new combat information center and necessary radars, along with enough tonnage to fit an additional pair of 5-inch/38 twin mounts, located fore and aft of the superstructure, with wider arcs of fire.

Towards the end of World War II, the increase of light anti-aircraft weapons made the class top-heavy, so to compensate, some ships had one of the two catapults, and No.

All, particularly the Talos-armed ships, suffered from greater stability problems than the original design due to the extra top weight.