The U.S. Navy has partially reversed course on its controversial plans to decommission the last of its Ticonderoga class cruisers by 2027, with three of the ships now set to continue serving further out toward the end of the decade. The new decision regarding the Ticonderogas is part of an ambitious Navy-wide strategy that includes a call to substantially increase the readiness of warships and other key assets within the next three years. This also follows the announcement last week that 12 of the oldest Arleigh Burke class destroyers will see their service lives extended.
The Navy announced the life-extension plans for the USS Gettysburg, USS Chosin, and USS Cape St. George, yesterday. There are six more Ticonderoga class cruisers in service now that are still slated for decommissioning in the next two years.
The new “decision adds 10 years of cumulative ship service life from fiscal year 2026 to 2029,” according to a Navy release. “All three cruisers received extensive hull, mechanical and engineering, as well as combat system upgrades as part of an extended modernization program.”
It is worth noting that USS Cape St. George, which is also the youngest still-serving Ticonderoga (commissioned in 1993), is actually still going through this upgrade process and is expected to return to the fleet sometime in the current fiscal year, which started on October 1. The modernization program includes improvements to the ship’s Aegis Combat System, a new AN/SPQ-9B radar and upgrades to the existing AN/SPY-1B, an updated SQQ-89A(V)15 sonar suite, modifications to the Mk 41 Vertical Launch System (VLS) arrays to expand their capabilities, and a host of other work, according to Navy budget documents.
The Navy’s original plan was to put 11 of its Ticonderogas through this upgrade program, with the modernized ships then serving into the 2030s. However, growing costs and delays, coupled with worsening cracking and other structural issues, had led it to reassess those plans. In 2022, the service announced its intention to decommission all of the remaining cruisers – including ones right in the middle of being upgraded like Gettysburg and Chosin – by 2027. Two other modernized Ticonderogas, the USS Vicksburg and USS Cowpens, were decommissioned earlier this year. The entire modernization program has already cost the Navy billions of dollars.
As already noted, the Navy’s original decision to send the Ticonderogas into mothballs was highly controversial. Beyond the sunk cost of the upgrade work, there continue to be serious questions about capability and capacity gaps, which the service has downplayed for years. Each Ticonderoga has 122 Mk 41 VLS cells. For comparison, Flight I and II Arleigh Burke destroyers have 90 Mk 41 cells, while more recent Flight IIA and III ships in that class have 96. The planned decommissioning of the Navy’s four highly in-demand Ohio class guided missile submarines, which can loaded with up to 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles apiece, before the end of the decade has only compounded concerns about dwindling missile launch capacity service-wide.
It’s interesting to point out here that USS Chosin was chosen to be the ship at the center of a test last month of the Transferrable Reload At-sea Method (TRAM) system for restocking Mk 41 VLS cells on ships at sea, which you can read more about here. Whether or not TRAM enters widespread service, at-sea reloading capabilities have emerged as a critical need for the Navy, especially in the context of planning for a potential future high-end fight, such as one in the Pacific against China.
The Ticonderogas were also designed from the outset as air and defense command and control platforms. The ships feature substantial capabilities in that regard that notably leads them to continue to be central components of Navy carrier strike groups. The service’s stated plan is for new Flight III Arleigh Burkes, of which it currently has one, to take over this role. Questions have been raised in the past about the long-term viability of this ‘maxed out’ subclass of Burkes serving in this capacity.
The Navy is working toward a true successor to the Arleigh Burke, currently referred to as DDG(X), but the first of those new warships is not expected to enter service until 2032 at the earliest. Previous plans for a direct replacement for the Ticonderogas evolved into the Zumwalt class of stealth destroyers, of which the Navy ultimately acquired just three. There continues to be ambiguity around the expected roles and missions of the Zumwalt class ships, as well as their overall future.
“As a former cruiser Sailor, I know the incredible value these highly-capable warships bring to the fleet and I am proud of their many decades of service,” Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro said in a statement about the life-extension plans for the Ticonderogas. “After learning hard lessons from the cruiser modernization program, we are only extending ships that have completed modernization and have the material readiness needed to continue advancing our Navy’s mission.”
The Navy is facing larger hurdles when it comes to increasing its overall fleet size, as well as maintaining the warships and submarines it has now. Its new Constellation class frigates are also mired in delays, cost growth, and other issues, as you can read more about here. With all this in mind, just last week, the service also announced it would be extending the service lives of a dozen more Flight I Arleigh Burkes into the 2030s to help maintain overall operational capacity.
Earlier this year, Adm. Lisa Franchetti, Chief of Naval Operations, unveiled a new service-wide “navigation plan,” also known as Project 33, which included a prominent goal to be able to surge deploy 80 percent of all naval vessels and combat aircraft, if required, by 2027. “We are shooting for very high, very tough stretch goals here, and I know that, but the only way we’re going to get there [is] if you set those goals that high,” Franchetti said in September.
The new change in plans for the Ticonderoga class is significant. At the same time, the fact that just three of these still highly capable cruisers are getting a relatively short reprieve, and at a high cost, underscores the significant challenges the Navy still faces in meeting its very ambitious readiness and operational capacity goals.
Contact the author: joe@twz.com
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