Navy decommissions 2 of its last Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruisers

Two of the Navy’s shrinking number of Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruisers were decommissioned in the past week, leaving just five of their type in the fleet.

The service plans to replace them with the next generation of guided-missile destroyers that will replace the Arleigh Burke class, according to a January report by the Congressional Research Office.

All the Ticonderoga-class cruisers will be decommissioned by 2029, according to the Navy.

The USS Shiloh was decommissioned at its Pearl Harbor homeport Wednesday after 34 years of service that included combat operations in Iraq and frequent humanitarian missions in the Indo-Pacific, the Navy said that day.

It had been homeported in Hawaii since 2023 after a 17-year stint at Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan.

The ship, named for the Civil War Battle of Shiloh, was commissioned on July 18, 1992.

The Shiloh was among the first cruisers to launch Tomahawk land attack missiles into Iraq during Operation Desert Strike in 1996, the Navy said in a news release Wednesday. It launched Tomahawks again during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.

In 2005, the ship supported humanitarian assistance to communities affected by the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami on the coast of Aceh, Indonesia.

Another cruiser, the USS Lake Erie, was decommissioned during a ceremony in San Diego on Sept. 25 after 33 years in service.

The ship, named after the Navy’s victory in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812, was commissioned on July 24, 1993.

It played a major role in the development and testing of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense system, the Navy said in a Sept. 25 release. It was deployed around the world during its three-decade lifespan.

Missions in 1995 included supporting Operation Southern Watch, which monitored shipping lanes to prevent Iraq from illegally exporting oil, and assisting with the withdrawal of peacekeepers in Somalia during Operation United Shield.

In February 2008, Lake Erie fired a missile to destroy a U.S. satellite that was making an uncontrolled reentry to Earth.

In 2017, the ship participated in Operation Inherent Resolve, conducting escorts through the Strait of Hormuz. Later that year, it deployed to Sri Lanka to provide humanitarian assistance after severe flooding and landslides displaced more than 10,000 people.

The Navy had intended to replace the Ticonderoga class with a next-generation cruiser based on the Zumwalt-class destroyers.

The Zumwalt program, however, was canceled due to cost overruns and performance issues. Only three ships were made.

The Navy in 2015 undertook a program to modernize seven Ticonderoga cruisers in hopes of extending their service, an effort that largely failed, according to a December 2024 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

“The Navy spent about $3.7 billion on cruiser modernization since 2015 and has failed to meet its objectives,” the report concluded.

“Of the 11 ships the Navy intended to modernize, it now plans to deploy only three. These three ships will not gain 5 years of service life. The Navy has divested four of the cruisers prior to finishing modernization and without providing any operational value to the Navy, thereby wasting the $1.84 billion already spent to modernize them.”