- Also called:
- Aegis cruiser
- Related Topics:
- guided-missile cruiser
Ticonderoga-class cruiser
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What is a Ticonderoga-class cruiser?
The Ticonderoga-class cruiser is a warship utilized by the United States Navy, first commissioned in 1983. These cruisers were the first surface combat ships equipped with the Aegis Weapon System, the Navy’s most sophisticated air-defense system, giving them capabilities in air, surface, and undersea warfare.
These 7,400-ton, gas-turbine-powered cruisers are fitted with weaponry, including surface-to-air and antiship missiles, torpedoes, two 125-mm guns, and two 20-mm guns. They are supplied with Tomahawk cruise missiles and carry two submarine-hunting helicopters. The Ticonderoga vessels are equipped with the Aegis radar system for tracking targets and directing missile defense. Between 1983 and 1994, 27 Ticonderoga-class cruisers were commissioned.
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Which branch of the military uses Ticonderoga-class cruisers?
The United States Navy uses the Ticonderoga-class cruiser, first commissioned in 1983. These warships are equipped for air, surface, and undersea warfare and are outfitted with the Aegis Weapon System, the Navy’s most sophisticated air-defense system. Between 1983 and 1994, 27 Ticonderoga-class cruisers were commissioned.
As of 2024, only 9 Ticonderoga-class cruisers were in service, and the Navy planned to retire those by fiscal year 2027. The Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyers are intended to replace them.
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What are the main roles of a Ticonderoga-class cruiser?
The Ticonderoga-class cruiser is a warship used by the United States Navy, first commissioned in 1983. These cruisers are equipped for air, surface, and undersea warfare. They were designed to counter Soviet cruise missiles fired from air, land, and underwater. As fleet escorts, they can engage in antiaircraft, antisubmarine, and antiship warfare, with specialization depending on the class.
These ships feature sophisticated weaponry, including surface-to-air and antiship missiles, torpedoes, and guns. They also carry Tomahawk cruise missiles and submarine-hunting helicopters. The Ticonderoga cruisers utilize the Aegis radar system for tracking targets and missile defense.
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What types of weapons are found on Ticonderoga-class cruisers?
Ticonderoga-class cruisers are warships equipped for air, surface, and undersea warfare. They feature the Aegis Weapon System, the Navy’s sophisticated air-defense system, which relies on radar to pick up targets and send signals to computers that identify the targets and determine whether to fire missiles in response.
These cruisers have a broad array of weaponry, including surface-to-air missiles and antiship missiles, tube-launched and rocket-launched antisubmarine torpedoes, and two 125-mm (5-inch) and two 20-mm (0.75-inch) guns. They also carry Tomahawk cruise missiles and two submarine-hunting helicopters.
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How does the Aegis combat system work on these cruisers?
The Ticonderoga-class cruiser utilizes the Aegis Weapon System, the Navy’s premier air-defense technology. Commissioned starting in 1983, these cruisers were designed to intercept Soviet cruise missiles launched from air, land, and underwater.
Aegis operates on a command and control system. Radar identifies targets and relays signals to computers, which then assess the threat and determine if missile engagement is necessary. The system uses a phased-array antenna that can rapidly shift the beam's direction electronically, without moving large mechanical structures. This allows for quick responses and makes it suitable for air defense.
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Why are Ticonderoga-class cruisers important to the U.S. Navy's operations?
As the first surface combat ships equipped with the Aegis Weapon System, Ticonderoga-class cruisers are outfitted for air, surface, and undersea warfare. They were designed to intercept Soviet cruise missiles launched from air, land, and sea. During the Persian Gulf War, these cruisers tracked Iraqi Scud missiles and launched Tomahawk cruise missiles into Iraq. In the Afghanistan War, they fired missiles at targets in Afghanistan at the start of the bombing campaign against the Taliban.
Between 1983 and 1994, 27 Ticonderoga-class cruisers were commissioned. As of 2024, only 9 Ticonderoga-class cruisers remain in service, with plans to retire them by fiscal year 2027. They are to be replaced by Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.
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Ticonderoga-class cruiser, class of warships used by the United States Navy. First commissioned in 1983, they were the first surface combat ships outfitted with the Aegis Weapon System, the Navy’s most sophisticated air-defense system. They are equipped for air, surface, and undersea warfare.
The purpose of the Ticonderoga-class cruiser program was to develop weaponry that could reliably take out elusive Soviet cruise missiles fired from the air, the land, and underwater. Critics charged that the program was an immense waste of money, while supporters claimed it was urgently needed.
Aegis relies on a “command and control” system, wherein radar picks up targets and sends signals back to computers that identify the targets and determine whether to fire missiles in response. Preliminary design of the new cruiser was finished in the fall of 1978. The first completed ship, the USS Ticonderoga, was launched in 1983.
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In the fall of that year the Ticonderoga was involved in the response to the bombing of U.S. and French military barracks in Beirut. It joined three aircraft carriers nearby in the Mediterranean Sea and was tasked with detecting, tracking, and reporting surface and air traffic. The ship remained there for five months.
The Aegis system came under intense scrutiny when the USS Vincennes, a Ticonderoga-class cruiser, shot down Iran Air flight 655, killing all 290 people onboard, on July 3, 1988. The ship’s crew had incorrectly identified the plane as a fighter jet. A U.S. Navy report on July 28—released to the public in redacted form on August 19—concluded that shooting down the plane had been “a tragic and regrettable accident.” In explaining how the state-of-the-art cruiser had misidentified flight 655, authorities cited “stress…and unconscious distortion of data.”
During the Persian Gulf War, Ticonderoga-class cruisers tracked Iraqi Scud missiles and fired Tomahawk cruise missiles into Iraq. In the Afghanistan War, the USS Philippine Sea, along with four other U.S. ships and two British submarines, fired missiles at targets in Afghanistan at the beginning of the bombing campaign against the Taliban, on October 7, 2001, less than a month after the September 11 attacks. On March 20, 2003, the USS Cowpens fired the first Tomahawk missile of the Iraq War.
On February 20, 2008, the USS Lake Erie shot down a malfunctioning U.S. spy satellite over the Pacific Ocean. Pres. George W. Bush had ordered the satellite’s destruction because of concern that it might fall to Earth in a populated area. Contact with the satellite had been lost shortly after launch, and the spacecraft’s fuel tank was carrying nearly 1,000 pounds (450 kg) of hydrazine, a highly toxic substance.
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Between 1983 and 1994, 27 Ticonderoga-class cruisers were commissioned. Of those, 19 were built at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and the rest were built at Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine. They were named for famous places in American military history, with two exceptions: the USS Robert S. Gates, named after the U.S. secretary of defense from 1959 to 1961, and the USS Robert Smalls (formerly the USS Chancellorsville), named for a Civil War naval hero.
In the early 2010s U.S. Navy officials and federal legislators started debating whether to invest money in upgrading and modernizing the Aegis cruisers or to phase them out. The Navy wanted to decommission them, while Congress wanted to keep them in use longer. Some upgrades were authorized. For example, in 2020 the USS Vicksburg started undergoing a $200 million repair that was intended to keep it in service well into the 2030s. However, in 2022 Congress authorized a plan for the Navy to decommission 10 cruisers by the end of the 2023 fiscal year. (Repair work stopped on the Vicksburg in 2024, and it was decommissioned.) As of 2024 there were only 9 Ticonderoga-class cruisers in service, and the Navy’s plan was to retire those by fiscal year 2027. Their intended replacements are the Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyers; the first of which, the USS Jack H. Lucas, was commissioned in 2023.