History: Ticonderoga class cruiser

The Ticonderoga class is a class guided missile cruisers in service with the United States Navy. They were first ordered and authorized in the 1978 fiscal year. One of the main characteristics of the ships in this class is that they use passive phased-array radar. Another interesting fact is that they were originally planned as a class of destroyers but the increased capabilities offered by the Aegis Combat System and the AN/SPY-1 radar justified the reclassification from DDG - Guided missile destroyer to CG - Guided missile cruiser.

History

Early retirement considerations

In light of the Budget Control Act of 2011 requirements to reduce the U. S. Defense Budget for the FY2013 the Navy considered the early decommissioning of some of the Ticonderoga-class cruisers. As a result the U.S. Defense 2013 Budget Proposal was made with plans to decommission seven cruisers in the fiscal years 2013 and 2014.

However these retirements would mean that the U.S. Navy would fall short of its requirements for 94 missile defense cruisers and destroyers beginning in FY2025.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a budget bill that requires that these cruisers to be refitted to handle a missile defence role rather then being retired¹

Design and construction

Vertical Launching System

Upgrades

Naming

Technology

Operational Service

Incidents

Iran Air Flight 655 incident

One major incident in which a ship of this class was involved is the shooting down of Iran Air Flight 655. On 3 July 1988 the crew of the USS Vincennes CG-49 mistakenly identified an Iran Air civilian aircraft as an attacking F14A Tomcat fighter and shot it down. All 290 civilian passengers on the aircraft lost their lives.

Ships in class

Name	Number	Builder	Launced	Commissioned	Decommissioned	Status
Ticonderoga	CG-47	Ingalls Shipbuilding	25 April 1981	22 January 1983	30 September 2004	Stricken, waiting for scrapping
Yorktown	CG-48	Ingalls Shipbuilding	17 January 1983	4 July 1984	10 December 2004	Stricken, waiting for scrapping
Vincennes	CG-49	Ingalls Shipbuilding	14 January 1984	6 July 1985	29 June 2005	Scrapped in 2011
Valley Force	CG-50	Ingalls Shipbuilding	23 June 1984	18 January 1986	30 August 2004	Sunk as target in 2006
Thomas S. Gates	CG-51	Bath Iron Works	14 December 1985	22 August 1987	16 December 2005	Stricken, waiting for scrapping

Name	Number	Builder	Launced	Commissioned	Home port	Status
Bunker Hill	CG-52	Ingalls Shipbuilding	11 March 1985	20 September 1986	San Diego, California	in active service, as of 2016

See also

Further reading

Guided missile cruiser