Key Points and Summary: The US Navy plans to retire its remaining Ticonderoga-class cruisers by 2027, prioritizing the introduction of advanced Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.
-While the cruisers offer substantial firepower and anti-submarine capabilities, the Navy cites modernization costs and the need to fast-track new destroyers with cutting-edge SPY-6 radar and Aegis Baseline 10 systems.
-These destroyers provide superior range, sensitivity, and integrated air and missile defense.
-With China’s naval expansion in mind, balancing the fleet’s size and technological edge is critical.
-Congress remains divided, debating whether to modernize and extend the cruisers’ service life or focus solely on Flight III destroyers.
Ticonderoga-Class Cruisers vs. Flight III Destroyers: What’s Next for the Navy?
The US Navy’s move to expedite the retirement of its Ticonderoga-class cruisers seems to involve a contradiction, as it is both sensible and potentially unnecessary, given that many of the warships are still viable and capable of adding value to the surface fleet.
The service hopes to decommission its last thirteen Ticonderoga-class ships by the end of the decade or by 2027 to create space for the fast-arriving Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.
According to an interesting 2024 essay in National Interest, some members of Congress are pushing to keep the cruisers in service for a more extended period, arguing they bring firepower, radar, and great power to the Navy’s surface fleet.
The first Ticonderoga-class ship, the USS Ticonderoga, was commissioned as far back as 1983, and the Navy has wanted to dry dock portions of the fleet to enable repairs and upgrades.
Another reason may have been to reduce operating costs and the logistical burden of keeping ships operational.
Sunset Ticonderoga-Class Cruisers?
By 1994, 27 Ticonderoga-class cruisers were built, and at least 14 have already been retired.
Earlier this year, an essay in USNI explained that four more cruisers were retired this year: the USS Vicksburg, USS Cowpens, USS Antietam, and the USS Leyte Gulf.
At the same time, the Navy extended the service life of three more Ticonderoga-class cruisers slated to decommission in 2026.
These warships have been extended to 2029, according to a November 2024 report in Stars and Stripes. The paper said that the USS Gettysburg, USS Chosin, and USS Cape St. George will now operate through 2029.
Modernization costs were cited by the Navy as a key influencer in decisions about the Ticonderoga class, along with the pace of arriving Flight III Destroyers.
This decision is complex and ambiguous because, while upgrading and modernizing the cruisers may have been prohibitive and pulled budget from other high-priority programs, it might make sense to maintain as significant a fleet as possible.
Modernizing and maintaining these high-powered warships makes sense in a threat environment wherein China now operates a larger Navy than the US.
Indeed, quality matters as much if not more than quantity, yet the Ticonderoga-class cruisers bring substantial additional firepower, surface warfare, and anti-submarine capability to the fleet.
For these reasons, it might seem to make sense to revamp and essentially “keep” a number of the warships in service.

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson (DDG 114) and the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Princeton (CG 59) steam in formation during dual carrier operations with the Nimitz and Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Groups (CSG). Dual carrier operations unify the tactical power of two individual CSG, providing fleet commanders with an unmatched, unified credible combat force capable of operating indefinitely. The CSGs are on a scheduled deployments to the Indo-Pacific.
By contrast, there is ultimately a finite amount of dollars within a surface fleet’s developmental budget, and the Navy has put 10 DDG 51 Flight III Destroyers on contract to arrive at an accelerated pace in the coming years.
Should an effort to modernize and maintain Ticonderoga-class cruisers impede, impair or simply weaken the Navy’s DDG 51 Flight III initiative, the ships should indeed be retired quickly.
Flight III US Navy Arleigh Burke-Class Destroyers: The Real Deal
Flight III US Navy Arleigh Burke-class destroyers must be fast-tracked to operational service as they introduce cutting-edge technologies.
These warships are the most advanced DDG 51s ever to exist, as they are built with new onboard power, cooling technology, computing, firepower, and a paradigm-changing AN/SPY 1 radar.
The most recent variants of Raytheon’s AN/SPY 6 radar can detect threat objects one-half the size at twice the distance. The AN/SPY-6 radar, previously called the Air and Missile Defense Radar, is engineered to simultaneously locate and discriminate multiple tracks.

SOUTH CHINA SEA (April 18, 2020) The Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill (CG 52), front, and the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Barry (DDG 52) transit the South China Sea. Bunker Hill is deployed to the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations and is operating with the America Expeditionary Strike Group in support of security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Nicholas V. Huynh/Released)200418-N-IW125-2047.
The SPY-6, as it’s called, is exponentially more powerful and sensitive than the AN/SPY v1 radar built into the Ticonderoga-class cruisers.
The First Flight III Destroyer to arrive was the USS Jack Lucas, a warship engineered with the paradigm-changing rear SPY-6 radar, a technology reported by Raytheon developers to be five times the strength of previous variants.
Flight IIIs also have a new software and hardware-enabled ship-based radar and fire control system called Aegis Baseline 10. This will drive a new technical ability for the ship to combine air warfare and ballistic missile defense into a single system.
In an age when threats increasingly present themselves at much further ranges due to advancing sensors and weapons, the much more sensitive, long-range, high-fidelity radar is critical for US Navy destroyers.
Given these advantages, it is sensible for the US Navy to put its dollars and developmental energy behind the emergence of Flight III DDG 51s.
About the Author: Kris Osborn
Kris Osborn is the Military Technology Editor of 19FortyFive and President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.

Philip D Steinert
January 19, 2025 at 4:06 pm
Could the SPY 6 radar not be retrofitted on the Ticonderoga class?
Ronald
January 20, 2025 at 5:51 am
The US needs more Aleigh Burke III warships and fast. Ticonderogas, are yesterday’s battle ship with obsolete systems. Let’s face facts and align with realities on the water. Time for the USN to stay fully alert.
Brent
January 20, 2025 at 10:48 am
Kris has obviously never set foot on a sip. If he had, he’d know that the Tico’s are wore out, having been run hard and put away wet for decades. But go ahead, ivory tower guy, lecture us fleet guys that actually go to sea how to do things.
Bradford H Amann
January 20, 2025 at 4:19 pm
China is building ships at a speed and our shipyards can’t even begin to compete with yet we plan to retire ships before their replacements are built… As long as the hulls are still good just upgrade them!
Aaron surprenant
January 20, 2025 at 10:16 pm
I dont think at this point that we should be retiring any vessels. Or maybe one of our allies would like to uograde them and add them to their fleet.