Ticonderoga class cruiser

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This article is about a United States guided missile cruiser class authorized in 1978. For other uses, see Ticonderoga.
USS Port Royal (CG-73)
USS Port Royal (CG-73)
Class overview
Builders: Ingalls Shipbuilding
Bath Iron Works
Operators: United States Navy
Preceded by: Virginia
Succeeded by: CG(X) development program
Built: 1980-1994
In commission: 1983-Present
Completed: 27
Active: 22
Laid up: 4
Retired: 5 (CG-47 to 51)
General characteristics
Type: Guided missile cruiser
Displacement: approx. 9,600 tons full load
Length: 567 feet (173 m)
Beam: 55 feet (17 m)
Draught: 33 feet (10 m)
Propulsion: 4 × General Electric LM2500 gas turbines, 2 shafts, 80,000 shp (60 MW)
Speed: 32.5 knots (60 km/h)
Range: 6,000 nautical miles (11,000 km) at 20 knots (37 km/h); 3,300 nautical miles (6,000 km) at 30 knots (56 km/h).
Complement: 33 officers & 327 enlisted
Sensors and
processing systems:		 AN/SPY-1A/B multi-function radar
AN/SPS-49 air search radar
AN/SPG-62 fire control radar
AN/SPS-55 surface search radar
AN/SPQ-9 gun fire control radar
AN/SQQ-89(V)3 Sonar suite, consisting of AN/SLQ-32 Electronic Warfare Suite
Electronic warfare
and decoys:		 Mark 36 SRBOC
AN/SLQ-25 Nixie
Armament: (cruiser mark 26) 2 × Mk 26 missile launchers
88 × RIM-66 SM-2
8 × RGM-84 Harpoon missiles
2 × Mark 45 5 in / 54 cal lightweight gun
2–4 × .50 cal (12.7 mm) gun
2 × Phalanx CIWS
2 × Mk 32 12.75 in (324 mm) triple torpedo tubes
(cruiser mark 41) 2 × 61 cell Mk 41 vertical launch systems
122 × RIM-66 SM-2, RIM-162 ESSM, BGM-109 Tomahawk, or RUM-139 VL-Asroc
8 × RGM-84 Harpoon missiles
2 × Mark 45 5 in / 54 cal lightweight gun
2 × 25 mm
2–4 × .50 cal (12.7 mm) gun
2 × Phalanx CIWS
2 × Mk 32 12.75 in (324 mm) triple torpedo tubes
Armor: limited Kevlar splinter protection in critical areas
Aircraft carried: 2 × Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk LAMPS III helicopters.

The Ticonderoga class of missile cruisers is a class of warships in the U.S. Navy, first ordered and authorized in FY 1978. The class uses phased-array radar; the increased combat capability offered by the Aegis combat system and the AN/SPY-1 radar system justified the changing of the classification of Ticonderoga and Yorktown from DDG (guided missile destroyer) to CG (guided missile cruiser). Vincennes and Valley Forge may or may not have been authorized as DDGs; regardless, the DDG sequence continued with USS Arleigh Burke as DDG-51.

Of the “Ticos”, at least twelve (Ticonderoga, Cowpens, Anzio, Yorktown, Valley Forge, Bunker Hill, Antietam, San Jacinto, Lake Champlain, Philippine Sea, Princeton, and Monterey) share names with World War II aircraft carriers.

Contents

[edit] Vertical Launching System

See also: Vertical Launching System

In addition to the added radar capability, the Ticonderoga class built after the Thomas S. Gates are outfitted with two Vertical Launching Systems (or VLS). The two VLS allow the ship to have 122 launch tubes that can carry a wide variety of missiles, including the Tomahawk cruise missile, the Standard surface-to-air missile, the Evolved Sea Sparrow surface-to-air missile, and the ASROC anti-submarine missile. More importantly, the VLS enables all missiles to be on full stand-by at any given time, shortening the ship's response time. The original five ships, including the Thomas S. Gates, had MK. 26 twin arm launchers which limited their missile capacity to a total of 88 missiles, and could not fire the Tomahawk missile. After the end of the Cold War, the lower capabilities of the original five ships limited them to home-waters duties. The ship's cluttered superstructure, inherited from the Spruance class destroyers , required two of the radar transceivers to be mounted on a special pallet on the portside aft corner of the superstructure, with the other two mounted on the forward starboard corner. Later Aegis ships, designed from the keel up to carry the SPY-1 radars, have them all clustered together. The high weight of the ships - 1,500 tons heavier than the "Spru-cans", resulted in a highly-stressed hull and some structural problems in early service, which were generally corrected in the late 1980s and mid-1990s. Several ships had superstructure cracks which had to be repaired.

[edit] Upgrade

Ticonderoga class cruiser was built on the same hull as the Spruance-class destroyer.
Ticonderoga class cruiser was built on the same hull as the Spruance-class destroyer.

Originally, the Navy had intended to replace its fleet of Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruisers with cruisers produced as part of the CG(X) missile cruiser program; however, severe budget cuts from the 21st century surface combatant program coupled with the increasing cost of the Zumwalt-class guided missile destroyer program have led to wide spread rumors that the CG(X) program was cancelled. If this is in fact correct, then the Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruisers do not yet have an intended replacement.

All five of the twin-arm (Mk-26) cruisers have been decommissioned. The newer 22 of the 27 ships (CG-52 to CG-73) in the class will be upgraded to keep them combat-relevant, giving the ships a service life of 35 years each.[1] In the years leading up to their decommissioning, the five twin-arm ships had been assigned primarily home-waters duties, acting as command ships for destroyer squadrons assigned to the eastern Pacific and western Atlantic areas.

[edit] Iran Air Flight 655

Main article: Iran Air Flight 655

One ship of the class, USS Vincennes, became infamous in 1988 when she shot down Iran Air Flight 655, resulting in 290 civilian fatalities, which the captain of Vincennes had believed from misinterpreted radar returns to be an Iranian Air Force F-14 Tomcat jet fighter on an attack vector. Vincennes was decommissioned in 2005.

[edit] Interception of United States satellite USA-193

Main article: USA 193

On February 14, 2008 the U.S. Department of Defense announced that the Lake Erie and two other ships would attempt to hit the dead satellite USA 193 in the north Pacific just prior to burn up during a period after February 20 using a modified SM-3 missile.[2][3] On February 21, 2008, at approximately 3:30 UTC, the missile was fired and later confirmed to have struck the satellite. The military intended that the kinetic energy of the missile would rupture the hydrazine fuel tank allowing the toxic fuel to be consumed during re-entry.[4] On February 24, the DoD confirmed that the fuel tank had been directly hit by the missile.[citation needed]

[edit] Units

Ship Name Hull No. Builder Commission–
Decommission		 Disposition Link
Ticonderoga CG-47 Ingalls 1983-2004 Stricken, available for donation as a museum and memorial [1]
Yorktown CG-48 Ingalls 1984-2004 Stricken, to be disposed of [2]
Vincennes CG-49 Ingalls 1985-2005 Stricken, to be disposed of [3]
Valley Forge CG-50 Ingalls 1986-2004 Disposed of in support of Fleet training exercise [4]
Thomas S. Gates CG-51 BIW 1987-2005 Stricken, to be disposed of [5]
Bunker Hill CG-52 Ingalls 1986- Active in service as of 2008 [6]
Mobile Bay CG-53 Ingalls 1987- Active in service as of 2008 [7]
Antietam CG-54 Ingalls 1987- Active in service as of 2008 [8]
Leyte Gulf CG-55 Ingalls 1987- Active in service as of 2008 [9]
San Jacinto CG-56 Ingalls 1988- Active in service as of 2008 [10]
Lake Champlain CG-57 Ingalls 1988- Active in service as of 2008 [11]
Philippine Sea CG-58 BIW 1989- Active in service as of 2008 [12]
Princeton CG-59 Ingalls 1989- Active in service as of 2008 [13]
Normandy CG-60 BIW 1989- Active in service as of 2008 [14]
Monterey CG-61 BIW 1990- Active in service as of 2008 [15]
Chancellorsville CG-62 Ingalls 1989- Active in service as of 2008 [16]
Cowpens CG-63 BIW 1991- Active in service as of 2008 [17]
Gettysburg CG-64 BIW 1991- Active in service as of 2008 [18]
Chosin CG-65 Ingalls 1991- Active in service as of 2008 [19]
Hué City CG-66 Ingalls 1991- Active in service as of 2008 [20]
Shiloh CG-67 BIW 1992- Active in service as of 2008 [21]
Anzio CG-68 Ingalls 1992- Active in service as of 2008 [22]
Vicksburg CG-69 Ingalls 1992- Active in service as of 2008 [23]
Lake Erie CG-70 BIW 1993- Active in service as of 2008 [24]
Cape St. George CG-71 Ingalls 1993- Active in service as of 2008 [25]
Vella Gulf CG-72 Ingalls 1993- Active in service as of 2008 [26]
Port Royal CG-73 Ingalls 1994- Active in service as of 2008 [27]

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Ticonderoga (CG 47) - Class
  2. ^ "Officials: U.S. to try to shoot down errant satellite", CNN, February 14, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-02-21. 
  3. ^ "Pentagon plans to shoot down disabled satellite", Reuters, February 14, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-02-21. 
  4. ^ "Missile Strikes a Spy Satellite Falling From Its Orbit", New York Times, February 21, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-02-21]. 

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
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Ticonderoga-class cruiser
Mark-26 twin-arm missile launcher ships:
Mark-41 vertical launching system ships:
List of cruisers of the United States Navy