These are the missile cruisers the US Navy spent $1.84 billion to upgrade just to throw them away

The Navy’s Ticonderoga-class cruisers were the first warships to be equipped with the Aegis Combat System, an automated weapon control system designed to detect, track, and engage aerial, surface, and subsurface threats.

These warships were equipped with 122 vertical missile launchers capable of launching Tomahawk and Harpoon missiles, among other weapons, forward and aft deck guns, and two close-in weapons systems.

In 2001, the Navy started work on a new cruiser as it prepared to phase out the Ticonderoga fleet. Nine years later, it abandoned the next-generation program and instead procured upgraded versions of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers to fill the gap before the arrival of future destroyers.

New destroyers are still being developed after the failure of the Zumwalt program and delays with the DDG(X) program.

Worried about China, some lawmakers resisted the Navy’s initial proposal to decommission the ships faster than it could replace them, so the modernization program was implemented instead.

The overhaul aimed to modernize the ships’ aging infrastructure by replacing corroded and worn hull components, upgrading mechanical and electrical systems, and integrating more advanced sensor and radar systems. It was also designed to make the warships compatible with more advanced missile defense systems and next-generation missiles.

During its over three decades of service, the cruiser USS Hué City provided humanitarian aid off the coast of New York in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks and embarked on seven deployments in support of US operations in Afghanistan and other areas in the Middle East.

Despite allocating $161.15 million to upgrade the cruiser after entering the modernization program in 2018, the Navy decided to decommission the Hué City in 2022, before work even started.

The Anzio was decommissioned along the Hué City in 2022 after 30 years of service. The cruiser participated in operations in the Mediterranean Sea, Indian Ocean, and Black Sea. The Anzio’s crew also disrupted pirate activity in the Red Sea and Arabian Sea and fired over a dozen Tomahawk missiles in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom while stationed in the Persian Gulf.

The service spent $250.54 million to upgrade the Anzio but later discontinued work on the ship due to cost overruns.

The Cowpens is known for Tomahawk missile action. In 1993, the Cowpens fired 10 Tomahawks into Iraq after violating no-fly zone sanctions. A decade later, the Cowpens launched the first Tomahawk missile into Iraq at the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The Navy invested $678.56 million to upgrade the Cowpens, but service officials inadequately managed the ship’s maintenance and upgrades. Properly repairing and modernizing the vessel would have cost another $88 million. The Cowpens was decommissioned in August after 33 years of service.

The Navy decommissioned USS Vicksburg at the end of June after 32 years in the fleet. It was the first ship to undergo modernization in 2016.

The Navy spent $745.05 million to upgrade the ship, but after the cruiser spent four years in the shipyard, the Navy found that the work was only 85% complete. Contractors dropped the ball on quality control while the Navy let maintenance slip to the point that key systems on the ship were simply not salvageable.

In September 2023, Navy officials found that the Vicksburg was still “years away” from completing its modernization, which would have cost another $120 million to finish.

Only three ships are expected to complete the modernization program — USS Gettysburg, USS Chosin, and USS Cape St. George. The cruisers will serve until fiscal year 2030 due to a service-life extension that the Navy announced in November.

The Gettysburg was the first of the three vessels to complete its modernization in February 2023. Less than a year later, a Navy review identified defects in the ship’s weapon systems and several structural issues. It wasn’t until this past summer that the warship passed a missile launch test using its updated combat systems.

In September, the cruiser deployed to the Middle East with the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group to help defend against Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.

USS Chosin completed its modernization in early 2024 after its nonfunctioning ventilation caused problems with the Aegis’ computer equipment, delaying operational testing before it was redelivered to the Navy.

The Chosin was involved in the Navy’s first successful attempt to reload a warship at sea. The Transferrable Reload At-sea Mechanism uses an apparatus of cables, rails, and pulleys to transfer missile canisters directly to a cruiser’s vertical missile launchers, streamlining the reloading process at sea rather than traveling to the nearest port.

Commissioned in 1993, the Cape St. George is the youngest active Ticonderoga-class vessel. The cruiser is still undergoing modernization and slated to undergo sea trials next year. The Navy plans to deploy the cruiser at least once before decommissioning.

The Navy’s failed efforts to modernize its Ticonderogas highlighted the need to address flaws in the service’s approach to maintaining a combat-ready fleet.

“The Navy did not effectively plan the cruiser effort,” the GAO report said, adding that “this led to a high volume of unplanned work — 9,000 contract changes — resulting in cost growth and schedule delays.”

The watchdog report said the Navy “has yet to identify the root causes of unplanned work or develop and codify root cause mitigation strategies to prevent poor planning from similarly affecting future surface ship modernization efforts.”

The GAO report released earlier this week spotlighted the flaws in the Navy’s modernization efforts for its cruisers. The new report followed the Navy’s recently announced $10 billion effort to refurbish its older Arleigh Burke-class destroyers “to keep more ready players on the field” while it works on other shipbuilding projects, like newer Burkes and the Constellation-class frigates.