Ticonderoga class cruiser


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)
Preserved: 1 On Donation Hold [1]
General characteristics
Type: Guided missile cruiser
Displacement: Approx. 9,600 long tons (9,800 t) full load
Length: 567 feet (173 m)
Beam: 55 feet (16.8 meters)
Draught: 34 feet (10.2 meters)
Propulsion:

4 × General Electric LM2500 gas turbine engines, 80,000 shaft horsepower (60,000 kW)
2 × controllable-reversible pitch propellers

2 × rudders
Speed: 32.5 knots (60 km/h)
Range: 6,000 nmi (11,000 km) at 20 kn (37 km/h); 3,300 nmi (6,100 km) at 30 kn (56 km/h).
Complement: 33 officers, 27 Chief Petty Officers, and approx. 340 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-73 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
68 × RIM-66 SM-2, and 20 × RUR-5 ASROC
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 × Mix of RIM-66M-5 Standard SM-2MR Block IIIB, RIM-156A SM-2ER Block IV, RIM-161 SM-3, RIM-162A ESSM, RIM-174A Standard ERAM, BGM-109 Tomahawk, or RUM-139A VL-ASROC
8 × RGM-84 Harpoon missiles
2 × Mk 45 Mod 2 5 in / 54 cal lightweight gun
2 × 25 mm Mk 38 gun
2–4 × .50 cal (12.7 mm) gun
2 × Phalanx CIWS Block 1B
2 × Mk 32 12.75 in (324 mm) triple torpedo tubes for lightweight torpedoes
Armor: limited Kevlar splinter protection in critical areas
Aircraft carried: 2 × Sikorsky SH-60B or MH-60R Seahawk LAMPS III helicopters.

The Ticonderoga class of missile cruisers is a class of warships in the United States Navy, first ordered and authorized in FY 1978. The class uses phased-array radar and was originally planned as a class of destroyers. However, the increased combat capability offered by the Aegis combat system and the AN/SPY-1 radar system was used to justify the change of the classification from DDG (guided missile destroyer) to CG (guided missile cruiser) shortly before the keels of Ticonderoga and Yorktown were laid down.

Of the twenty-seven built vessels, nineteen were built by Ingalls Shipbuilding and eight by Bath Iron Works (BIW). All but one (Thomas S. Gates) of the ships in the class are named for noteworthy events in U.S. military history, and at least twelve; Ticonderoga, Cowpens, Anzio, Yorktown, Valley Forge, Bunker Hill, Antietam, San Jacinto, Lake Champlain, Philippine Sea, Princeton, Monterey, and Vella Gulf; share their names with World War II aircraft carriers.

Contents

Design

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 missile storage and launching 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 warfare 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 warships, 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 warships limited them to duties close to the home waters of the U.S. These ship's cluttered superstructure, inherited from the Spruance class destroyers, required two of their external radar units 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 warships, 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.

Upgrade

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 widespread rumors that the CG(X) program was canceled. The Ticonderoga class will instead be replaced by Flight III Arleigh Burke class destroyers.[2]

All five of the twin-arm (Mk-26) cruisers have been decommissioned. In 2003, the newer 22 of the 27 ships (CG-52 to CG-73) in the class were upgraded to keep them combat-relevant, giving the ships a service life of 35 years each.[3] 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.

Iran Air Flight 655 Shot Down

Main article: Iran Air Flight 655

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

Interception of United States satellite USA-193

Main article: USA-193

On February 14, 2008, the United States Department of Defense announced that the USS Shiloh (CG-67) and USS Lake Erie (CG-70) 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.[4][5] On February 20, 2008, at approximately 22:30 EST (21 Feb, 03:30 UTC), the missile was fired from Lake Erie 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.[6] The Department of Defense later confirmed that the fuel tank had been directly hit by the missile.[7]

Ships in class

 Name   Number   Builder   Launched   Commissioned   Decommissioned   Status   Link 
Mark-26 Twin-Arm Launcher Variant
Ticonderoga CG-47 Ingalls Shipbuilding 25 April 1981 22 January 1983 30 September 2004 Stricken, available for donation as a museum and memorial [1]
Yorktown CG-48 Ingalls Shipbuilding 17 January 1983 4 July 1984 10 December 2004 Stricken, to be disposed of [2]
Vincennes CG-49 Ingalls Shipbuilding 14 January 1984 6 July 1985 29 June 2005 Stricken, scrapped in Brownsville, TX NOV 2010-APR 2011 [3]
Valley Forge CG-50 Ingalls Shipbuilding 23 June 1984 18 January 1986 30 August 2004 Disposed of in support of Fleet training exercise, sunk in a target practice [4]
Thomas S. Gates CG-51 Bath Iron Works 14 December 1985 22 August 1987 16 December 2005 Stricken, to be disposed of [5]
 Name   Number   Builder   Launched   Commissioned   Home port   Status   Link 
Mark-41 Vertical Launch System Variant
Bunker Hill CG-52 Ingalls Shipbuilding 11 March 1985 20 September 1986 San Diego, California in active service, as of 2012 [6]
Mobile Bay CG-53 Ingalls Shipbuilding 22 August 1985 21 February 1987 San Diego, California in active service, as of 2012 [7]
Antietam CG-54 Ingalls Shipbuilding 14 February 1986 6 June 1987 San Diego, California in active service, as of 2012 [8]
Leyte Gulf CG-55 Ingalls Shipbuilding 20 June 1986 26 September 1987 Norfolk, Virginia in active service, as of 2012 [9]
San Jacinto CG-56 Ingalls Shipbuilding 14 November 1986 23 January 1988 Norfolk, Virginia in active service, as of 2012 [10]
Lake Champlain CG-57 Ingalls Shipbuilding 3 April 1987 12 August 1988 San Diego, California in active service, as of 2012 [11]
Philippine Sea CG-58 Bath Iron Works 12 July 1987 18 March 1989 Mayport, Florida in active service, as of 2012 [12]
Princeton CG-59 Ingalls Shipbuilding 2 October 1987 11 February 1989 San Diego, California in active service, as of 2012 [13]
Normandy CG-60 Bath Iron Works 19 March 1988 9 December 1989 Norfolk, Virginia in active service, as of 2012 [14]
Monterey CG-61 Bath Iron Works 23 October 1988 16 June 1990 Norfolk, Virginia in active service, as of 2012 [15]
Chancellorsville CG-62 Ingalls Shipbuilding 15 July 1988 4 November 1989 San Diego, California in active service, as of 2012 [16]
Cowpens CG-63 Bath Iron Works 11 March 1989 9 March 1991 Yokosuka, Japan in active service, as of 2012 [17]
Gettysburg CG-64 Bath Iron Works 22 July 1989 22 June 1991 Mayport, Florida in active service, as of 2012 [18]
Chosin CG-65 Ingalls Shipbuilding 1 September 1989 12 January 1991 Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in active service, as of 2012 [19]
Hué City CG-66 Ingalls Shipbuilding 1 June 1990 14 September 1991 Mayport, Florida in active service, as of 2012 [20]
Shiloh CG-67 Bath Iron Works 8 September 1990 18 July 1992 Yokosuka, Japan in active service, as of 2012 [21]
Anzio CG-68 Ingalls Shipbuilding 2 November 1990 2 May 1992 Norfolk, Virginia in active service, as of 2012 [22]
Vicksburg CG-69 Ingalls Shipbuilding 2 August 1991 14 November 1992 Mayport, Florida in active service, as of 2012 [23]
Lake Erie CG-70 Bath Iron Works 13 July 1991 10 May 1993 Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in active service, as of 2012 [24]
Cape St. George CG-71 Ingalls Shipbuilding 10 January 1992 12 June 1993 San Diego, California in active service, as of 2012 [25]
Vella Gulf CG-72 Ingalls Shipbuilding 13 June 1992 18 September 1993 Norfolk, Virginia in active service, as of 2012 [26]
Port Royal CG-73 Ingalls Shipbuilding 20 November 1992 4 July 1994 Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in active service, as of 2012 [27]

References

  1. ^ Referenced December 1, 2010.
  2. ^ "Navy DDG-51 and DDG-1000 Destroyer Programs: Background and Issues for Congress". Open CRS. http://opencrs.com/document/RL32109/2010-02-26/?24684. Retrieved 2011-12-28. 
  3. ^ The Ticonderoga (CG 47) - Class
  4. ^ "Officials: U.S. to try to shoot down errant satellite". CNN. February 14, 2008. http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/02/14/spy.satellite/index.html. Retrieved 2008-02-21. 
  5. ^ "Pentagon plans to shoot down disabled satellite". Reuters. February 14, 2008. http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/02/14/us-usa-satellite-missile-idUSN1447206620080214?sp=true. Retrieved 2011-12-29. 
  6. ^ Shanker, Thom (February 21, 2008). "Missile Strikes a Spy Satellite Falling From Its Orbit". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/us/21satellite.html?hp. Retrieved 2008-02-21. 
  7. ^ "Navy Succeeds In Intercepting Non-Functioning Satellite". NNS. February 20, 2008. http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=35114. Retrieved 2009-05-06. 

External links

Ticonderoga-class cruiser
Mark-26 twin-arm missile launcher ships:
Mark-41 vertical launching system ships: