Hello everyone you're watching the channel Military TV, In this video, we'll look at
the Ticonderoga class guided-missile cruisers. 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.
Modern US Navy guided missile cruisers perform primarily in a Battle Force role. Due to their
extensive combat capability, these ships have been designated as Battle Force Capable units. Their
primary armament is the Vertical Launching System employs both the long range surface-to-surface
tomahawk cruise missile and the Standard Surface-to-Air Missile. These multi-mission
ships are capable of sustained combat operations in any combination of Anti-Air, Anti-Submarine,
Anti- Surface, and Strike warfare environments. They are built to be employed in support of
Carrier Battle Groups, Amphibious Assault Groups, as well as interdiction and escort missions.
Of the 27 completed vessels, 19 were built by Ingalls Shipbuilding and eight by Bath Iron Works
. All but one (Thomas S. Gates) of the ships in the class are named for noteworthy events in U.S.
military history, and at least twelve share their names with World War II-era aircraft carriers.
As of 2020, 22 ships are still active and expected to serve for 35 years since commissioning.
22 ships are operational, 11 in the US Navy Atlantic Fleet and 11 in the Pacific Fleet,
two of which are based in Japan in the US Naval Forces Base at Yokosuka.
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.
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.
In the anti-ship role the missile uses inertial guidance and active / passive
radar homing to a range of 250 nautical mile. The land attack version uses a
Tercom (terrain comparison) and inertial navigation system. 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 and Tactical Tomahawk Block IV missiles. Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles (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. The missile has new GPS/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 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 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. The three cruisers,
with 15 Arleigh Burke destroyers form the Aegis ballistic missile defence fleet. Aegis ballistic
missile defence is the main sea-based component of the US ballistic missile defence system.
A triple 324mm-tube torpedo launcher is capable of launching the mk46 mod 5 torpedo
and mk50 torpedo from Alliant TechSystems. The mk46 anti-submarine torpedo has a range of 10km,
the mk50 has a range of 15km. The Lockheed Martin Vertical Launch ASROC
is armed with the mk50 or mk46 torpedo and is launched from the mk41 VLS.
The ship’s main guns are two BAE Systems Land & Armaments mk 45 127mm/54 guns capable of firing
32kg shells to a target range of 22km at a maximum firing rate of 20 rounds a minute.
Two Raytheon Phalanx mk15 close-in weapon systems are installed. Phalanx has a
20mm/53-calibre six-barrel gun capable of firing 3,000 rounds a minute to a target range of 1.5km.
Phalanx Block 1B is fitted with a thermal imager and can fire 4,000 rounds a minute.
The ship supports two Sikorsky SH-60B Seahawk helicopters fitted with the LAMPS mission avionics
integrated by Lockheed Martin Federal Systems, which provides the capability of directing
tactical actions by the ship and air team. Under the FY15 National Defense Authorization Act,
Congress directed modernization in accordance with the "2-4-6" plan,
which allowed the Navy to modernize two Cruisers a year, remain under modernization for no more than
four years and allow no more than 6 ships to undergo modernization at any one time.