The Most Powerful Cruiser Of The United States - Ticonderoga

While the focus of this brief is weapons and sensors, the Spruance Class instituted an important engineering plant change. Prior to Spruance, main engines were 1200 psi geared steam turbines. Major repairs were made onboard and took multiple weeks to complete. Engine removal took a huge hull cut throuugh several decks. The Spruance LM 2500 gas turbine was designed to to be uncoupled from reduction gears and ride on rails from the engine room right up the stack. Took less than 8 hours and allowed off hull refurb and a ready reserve of engines. This evolution also eliminated boilers and all the related aux machinery.

The Ticonderoga class of guided-missile cruisers is a class of warships in the United States Navy, first ordered and authorized in the 1978 fiscal year. The Ticonderoga-class cruiser's design was based on that of the Spruance-class destroyer. In this video, we'll look at the Ticonderoga class cruisers amazing weapons systems. The Ticonderogas were the first surface combatant ships equipped with the AEGIS Weapon System, the most sophisticated air defence system in the world. 

The heart of AEGIS is the SPY-1A radar. Two paired phased array radars automatically detect and track air contacts to beyond 322 km (200 miles). The Aegis system was developed to counter the serious air and missile threat that Soviet air and naval forces posed to U.S. carrier battle groups and other task forces. With Ticonderoga-class cruisers in company, battle group commanders had weapons that could deal comprehensively with massed missile attacks, and ships could act as effective anti-air warfare command-and-control platforms during an engagement at sea. The class uses passive phased-array radar and was originally planned as a class of destroyers. However, the increased combat capability offered by the Aegis Combat System and the AN/SPY-1 radar system, together with the capability of operating as a flagship, were used to justify the change of the classification from DDG (guided missile destroyer) to CG (guided-missile cruiser) shortly before the keels were laid down for Ticonderoga and Yorktown. 

Ship in the class: Ticonderoga CG-47 , Yorktown CG-48 , Vincennes CG-49 , Valley Forge CG-50 , Thomas S. Gates CG-51 , Bunker Hill CG-52 , Mobile Bay CG-53 , Antietam CG-54 , Leyte Gulf CG-55 , San Jacinto CG-56 , Lake Champlain CG-57 , Philippine Sea CG-58 , Princeton CG-59 , Normandy CG-60 , Monterey CG-61 , Chancellorsville CG-62 , Cowpens CG-63 , Gettysburg CG-64 , Chosin CG-65 , Hué City CG-66 , Shiloh CG-67 , Anzio CG-68 , Vicksburg CG-69 , (ex-Port Royal) , Lake Erie CG-70 , Cape St. George CG-71 , Vella Gulf CG-72 , Port Royal CG-73 , Missiles 22 of the class (CG52 – CG73) are fitted with two mk 41 Vertical Launch Systems (VLS), each armed with eight Boeing / Raytheon Tomahawk cruise missiles. The first five ships (CG47 to CG51) are fitted with conventional twin launchers. The mk41 launchers are being upgraded with new Lockheed Martin AN/ALQ-70 computers and the ability to launch Evolved Seasparrow Missiles (ESSM). In the anti-ship role the missile uses inertial guidance and active / passive radar homing to a range of 250nm. 

The land attack version (TLAM) uses a Tercom (terrain comparison) and inertial navigation system (TAINS). Range is up to 2,500km. As part of the US Navy cruiser conversion programme, the mk41 launchers are being upgraded with new Lockheed Martin AN/ALQ-70 computers and the ability to launch Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles (ESSM) and Tactical Tomahawk (Block IV) missiles. ESSM (which entered service with the USN in 2004) has been developed by Raytheon with an international cooperative of ten NATO countries and is designed to counter high-speed anti-ship missiles. It has the same semi-active radar guidance and warhead as the Seasparrow but has a new rocket motor and tail control to provide increased speed, range and manoeuvrability. Tactical Tomahawk, which entered service in September 2004, has the capability for mission planning onboard the launch vessel, in-flight targeting and loitering. Two four-cell launchers for the Boeing Harpoon surface-to-surface missile system are installed on the gun deck at the stern of the ship. Harpoon has a range up to 125km. The ships are armed with the Raytheon Standard Missile 2MR surface-to-air missile which uses command and inertial guidance and semi-active radar homing and has a range of 70km. 60 missiles are carried for each of the two mk 41 VLS. In November 2002, the Standard Missile SM-3, being developed by Raytheon, successfully intercepted a ballistic missile in space from USS Lake Erie (CG 70). The SM-3 is designed to intercept ballistic missiles outside the earth’s atmosphere and will form part of the US Navy’s Sea-based Midcourse Defense (SMD). The missile has new GPS/INS (global positioning / inertial navigation) guidance and kinetic warhead. Raytheon began deliveries of the SM-3 in December 2004. Lockheed Martin has developed the Aegis ballistic missile defence (BMD) 3.0 capability for the Aegis combat system to engage ballistic missiles with the SM-3 missile. 

USS Shiloh, USS Erie and USS Port Royal have been fitted with the Aegis ballistic missile defence (BMD) 3.6 system, which provides the capability for long-range surveillance, tracking and engagement of short and medium-range ballistic missiles. The system received US Navy certification for full deployment in September 2006.