USS Ticonderoga in May 1982
History
United States
NameTiconderoga
NamesakeBattle of Ticonderoga
Ordered22 September 1978
BuilderIngalls Shipbuilding
Laid down21 January 1980
Launched25 April 1981
Sponsored byNancy Reagan
Christened16 May 1981
Commissioned22 January 1983
Decommissioned30 September 2004
Stricken30 September 2004
Identification
MottoFirst AEGIS Cruiser
Nickname(s)Tico[1]
StatusArrived in Brownsville, Texas for scrapping in September 2020[2]
Badge
General characteristics
Class and typeTiconderoga-class cruiser
DisplacementApprox. 9,600 long tons (9,800 t) full load
Length567 feet (173 m)
Beam55 feet (16.8 meters)
Draft34 feet (10.2 meters)
Propulsion
Speed32.5 knots (60 km/h; 37.4 mph)
Complement30 officers and 300 enlisted
Sensors and
processing systems
Armament
Aircraft carried2 × MH-60R Seahawk LAMPS Mk III helicopters.

USS Ticonderoga (DDG/CG-47), nicknamed "Tico", was a guided-missile cruiser built for the United States Navy. She was the lead ship of the Ticonderoga class and the first U.S. Navy combatant to incorporate the Aegis combat system. Originally ordered as a guided-missile destroyer, she was redesignated as a cruiser after capabilities from the cancelled Strike cruiser program were implemented into the ship's design.[3] The new AEGIS system allowed Ticonderoga to track and engage many aerial targets more effectively than any previous U.S. Navy warship.

Ticonderoga entered service in 1983 and deployed later that year to the Mediterranean.[4] Over her first 10 years of service, Ticonderoga deployed multiple times to the Mediterranean, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans and the Persian Gulf. During Operation Desert Storm, she was attached to Battle Force Zulu and served as Arabian Gulf Track Coordinator.[4] Although she was built with a 35-year service life, the limited missile capacity of Ticonderoga's twin Mark 26 missile launch systems rendered her obsolete by the end of the Cold War. As a result, Ticonderoga adopted a primary mission of counternarcotics in the 1990s and 2000s, and made multiple patrols of the Caribbean in that role.

After being decommissioned in 2004, Ticonderoga was stored at the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia. She arrived in Brownsville, Texas, for scrapping in 2020.

Design and construction

The contract to build DDG-47 Ticonderoga was awarded to Ingalls Shipbuilding on 22 September 1978. The ship's design was based on that of the Spruance-class destroyer. While sharing the same hull, the Ticonderoga-class design featured two large deckhouses and the Aegis combat system that together increased the ship's displacement from the Spruance-class baseline of 6,900 tons to 9,600 tons. On each of the two deckhouses were two AN/SPY-1 radars that gave the ship 360° coverage of the surrounding airspace. Following the cancellation of the Strike Cruiser program, flagship capabilities were added to the Ticonderoga class's design and the ship was then redesignated as a guided-missile cruiser, CG-47 on 1 January 1980, shortly before her keel was laid.

Ticonderoga's keel was laid down on 21 January 1980, the 35th anniversary of the devastating kamikaze attack on the Essex-class aircraft carrier Ticonderoga (CV-14). CG-47 was launched on 25 April 1981 and christening on 16 May 1981 with First Lady Nancy Reagan, the ship's main sponsor, in attendance. Ticonderoga was delivered to the U.S. Navy on 13 December 1982 and commissioned in Pascagoula, Mississippi, on 22 January 1983 with Captain Roland Guilbault in command.

U.S. First Lady Nancy Reagan christened USS Ticonderoga on 16 May 1981.

Naming

CG-47 is the fifth United States Navy vessel to bear the name Ticonderoga. She was named for the Capture of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775, the start of the American offensive during the American Revolution.[5] The name "Ticonderoga" is derived from the Iroquois word tekontaró:ken, meaning "it is at the junction of two waterways".[6] Most of the ships in the Ticonderoga class are similarly named for significant battles in U.S. history.

Service history

1980s

Departing for her new homeport of Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, soon after her commissioning in Pascagoula, Ticonderoga completed exercises in the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean. She arrived in Norfolk on 3 June 1983, and then deployed on 20 October to the Mediterranean with the Independence carrier strike group. Although stopping in Portsmouth, England, for a brief port visit, Ticonderoga was dispatched to the coast of Beirut following the bombing of U.S. Marine barracks on 23 October 1983. During her 48 days on station, she fired her five-inch guns at hostile artillery units attempting to shoot down two F-14 Tomcat fighter aircraft performing a reconnaissance mission over Lebanon.[7] Ticonderoga made a port stop in Haifa, Israel, for the New Year and then returned to Norfolk, arriving on 4 May 1984.

On 8 September 1984, while Ticonderoga was conducting exercises east of Mayport, Florida, a fire broke out in her aft main engine exhaust uptake. The At-Sea and General Quarters fire parties eventually put the fire out and Ticonderoga returned to Norfolk under her own power in early October.[4]

On 23 March 1986, Ticonderoga, while conducting a Freedom of Navigation exercise in the Gulf of Sidra, moved south of the "Line of Death" in Libya, covered by fighter aircraft. Libya responded by unsuccessfully attacking battle-force aircraft. Ticonderoga responded by destroying several Libyan patrol boats. For her participation in the operation, Ticonderoga received her second Navy Unit Commendation and Navy Expeditionary Medal. During joint Navy-Air Force air strikes on Libyan targets on 15 April, she received the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal.[4]

In the late 1980s, she served in the Persian Gulf as part of Operation Earnest Will while under the command of Captain James M. Arrison III, USN.

1990s

For a time in the late 1990s, she was based at Pascagoula, Mississippi, as part of Commander, Naval Surface Forces Atlantic's Western Hemisphere Group.

2000s

Ticonderoga was towed from Naval Station Pascagoula immediately following her decommissioning on 30 September 2004.

On 4 May 2004, she completed transit of the Panama Canal and then moved to cross the equator. Her ship crew engaged in the rites and rituals of the crossing, inducting the captain of the ship and many of the crew in to "Shell-Backs". She completed her final deployment on 3 August 2004. Ticonderoga then made liberty port visits to Cozumel, Mexico (15-17 March); Colon (27-28 March); Mayport (1-9 April); Guantánamo Bay (12-13 April); Cartagena, Colombia (27-29 May); Vasco Núñez de Balboa, Panama (6-7 May); and Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala (17-19 May). She conducted counter-narcotics operations in conjunction with Colombian military authorities from April–June. Ticonderoga successfully intercepted five cigarette-shaped “go-fast” smuggling boats, and one fishing vessel, netting over 14,000 pounds of cocaine, and detaining 25 suspects in the process. She was decommissioned on 30 September of that year. After her decommissioning, she was towed to the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia. In 2010, she was offered for museum donation by the Navy. An effort was made to bring Ticonderoga to Pascagoula, Mississippi, where she was built, to serve as a museum ship.[8] In May 2013, the vessel was formally stricken from the Naval Vessel Register, for disposal.[9] In October of the same year, The Ticonderoga Historical Society reported that the US Navy was going to scrap the ship after a number of potential museum sites were unable to add her to their collections.[10] In June 2014, NAVSEA released a disposal reporting letter declaring the ex-Ticonderoga to be available for inspection by bidders and ready for disposal by scrapping or sinking.[11] In September 2020, she arrived at Brownsville, Texas, for scrapping.[2]

The former USS Ticonderoga was at berth at the Philadelphia Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in January 2008.

Deployments

StartEndAreas of OperationNotes
20 October 19834 May 1984North Atlantic,
20 April 200128 August 2001Caribbean, Eastern Pacific
10 March 20044 August 2004Caribbean

Awards

Ticonderoga was featured in the 1986 Tom Clancy novel Red Storm Rising, defending the USS Nimitz and USS Saratoga combined battlegroups against, and getting seriously damaged by, the saturation antiship missile attack in the Norwegian Sea by Soviet Tu-22M bombers.

Ticonderoga was mentioned in the Tom Waits song "Shore Leave" on his 1983 album Swordfishtrombones.

References

This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here.

  1. ↑ Cushman Jr., John H. (19 December 1987). "Navy Puts Its 'Spotter' Near the Gulf". New York Times. Retrieved 13 March 2009.
  2. 1 2 "The Navy's First Aegis Warship USS Ticonderoga Is Being Scrapped". thedrive.com. 27 November 2020. Retrieved 17 October 2022.
  3. ↑ Friedman, Norman (1984). U.S. CRUISERS An Illustrated Design History. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. pp. 419–422.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Nasuti, Guy J. (21 November 2019). "Ticonderoga V (CG-47)". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Naval History & Heritage Command. Retrieved 23 November 2019. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  5. ↑ GlobalSecurity.org USS Ticonderoga (CG-47).
  6. ↑ Afable, Patricia O.; Beeler, Madison S. (1996). "Place Names". In Sturtevant, William C.; Goddard, Ives (eds.). Handbook of North American Indians. Vol. 17 Languages. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. p. 193. ISBN 9780874741971.
  7. ↑ "Two U.S. ships pounded anti-aircraft positions east of Beirut..." UPI. 18 December 1983. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  8. ↑ "USS Ticonderoga to be floating museum". Ships Monthly. April 2010.
  9. ↑ "Ticonderoga (CG-47)". Naval Vessel Register. May 2013. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
  10. ↑ "USS Ticonderoga (CG-47) To be Scrapped?". Ticonderoga Historical Society website. 20 October 2013. Archived from the original on 7 June 2014. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  11. ↑ "Disposal Reporting Letter for Ex-Ticonderoga (CG-47)" (PDF). 17 June 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 August 2014. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "Naval Vessel Historical Evaluation CG-47 Final Determination" (PDF). US Navy NAVSEA. 10 November 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 August 2014. Retrieved 17 August 2014.

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to USS Ticonderoga (CG-47).
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.