US Navy extends service lives of three Ticonderoga-class cruisers

The US Department of the Navy plans to operate three US Navy Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruisers beyond their expected service life. This decision adds 10 years of cumulative ship service life from fiscal year 2026 to 2029.

The cruisers that have been selected to undergo the service life extension are USS Gettysburg (pictured), USS Chosin, and USS Cape St. George. All three cruisers received extensive hull, mechanical and engineering, as well as combat system upgrades as part of an extended modernisation program.

Gettysburg and Chosin completed modernisation in fiscal year 2023 and fiscal year 2024, respectively. Cape St. George is on schedule to complete modernisation this fiscal year.

The Department of the Navy said that, like the recently announced service life extension of 12 destroyers, extending the lives of these three cruisers will bolster the fleet as new ships are built.

The decision follows a successful re-arm at sea demonstration aboard Chosin on October 11, 2024. The Transferrable Reload At-sea Mechanism (TRAM) demonstration was the first time the US Navy transferred missile canisters from a replenishment ship to a warship while at sea. This logistics capability enables US Navy ships to rearm without needing to pull into port.

Other Ticonderoga-class cruisers are meanwhile being decommissioned part of an ongoing phase-out program on the ships, which were built from the early 1980s to the early 1990s. Among the cruisers to recently be decommissioned are USS Cowpens and USS Leyte Gulf.