US Navy scraps Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Vicksburg after spending $754 million to modernize it.

The U.S. Navy's decommissioned Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Vicksburg departed the Philadelphia Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility under tow toward Brownsville, Texas, for final dismantling. The departure concludes a protracted modernization cycle that consumed more than $750 million without achieving operational readiness or returning the warship to active fleet service.

Program audits revealed that structural degradation, uncompleted Aegis combat system integration, and failing sonar dome pressure tests rendered a projected 85% completion milestone functionally obsolete. Consequently, defense expenditure shifted from Ticonderoga-class life-extension efforts to disposal as fleet analysts confirmed repair costs significantly exceeded the operational value of a potential service life extension.

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The USS Vicksburg entered modernization in 2016 and received more than $750 million in upgrades, but the U.S. Navy halted the effort before completion, and the cruiser was cannibalized for parts to support other Ticonderoga-class ships. (Picture source: Al Stinger via X/WarshipCam)

On September 30, 2026, both WarshipCam and Al Stinger reported that the former U.S. Navy Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Vicksburg (CG-69) left Philadelphia, towed by the ABS A1 Class ocean-going tugboat Caitlin, for Brownsville, Texas, for scrapping, ending a career in which the Vicksburg spent its final eight years undergoing modernization but never returned to operational deployment. The USS Vicksburg returned from its last deployment on July 11, 2015, entered modernization on July 1, 2016, reached 85% completion by May 2022, and was decommissioned on June 28, 2024, after 31 years and 227 days in commission. Navy data reviewed by GAO put modernization expenditure at $745.05 million through September 30, 2023, with additional FY2024 obligations subsequently taking the figure to $754.1 million.

The USS Vicksburg's departure to dismantling also removes another unit of the Ticonderoga-class, the world's first operational Aegis warship class, which introduced the air defense architecture in service since 1983 with the U.S. Navy. The cost escalation was accompanied by unfinished work rather than a nearly deployable ship awaiting a final decision. The USS Vicksburg's modernization began with a BAE Systems contract worth up to $42.9 million in 2017 and expanded with a $175 million Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) beginning in January 2020. By September 2023, Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center personnel estimated another $100 million would be required for completion by FY2025, excluding dry-docking needed to repair the nonfunctional sonar dome, while the program office estimated $120 million to finish the modernization.

GAO found those estimates potentially optimistic because a senior fleet official considered the USS Vicksburg years from completion, while its combat information center still had disconnected and unusable consoles in September 2023. By FY2024, the U.S. Navy specifically cited the Vicksburg's age, legacy sensors, and hull, mechanical, and electrical reliability when concluding that repair costs outweighed the combat contribution obtainable by a potential extension of life by 35 to 40 years, but the Navy calculated that retaining CG-69 would require $64 million in FY2024 and $524 million across the five-year FYDP. The sonar dome illustrates why an 85% completion figure did not translate directly into operational readiness. During work at BAE Systems Norfolk, installation problems damaged one pressurized sonar window, while a second failed its pressure testing because air escaped around large degaussing system cables.

Rework did not resolve the problem, leaving the sonar dome nonfunctional and requiring another dry-docking period that was not included in the $100 million regional maintenance estimate. The USS Vicksburg ultimately had to leave the dry dock so another ship could enter, while modernization remained incomplete. By September 2023, the cruiser was also being cannibalized to support the USS Gettysburg and other Ticonderoga cruisers, and by April 2024 its gun barrels and substantial topside equipment had been removed. What disappears with CG-69 is a 9,800-ton guided-missile cruiser measuring 173 meters long and 16.8 meters wide, powered by four LM2500 gas turbines and capable of reaching speeds of up to 32.5 knots (60 km/h).

Its two 61-cell Mk 41 vertical launch systems provided 122 cells for several combinations of SM-2MR, SM-2ER, SM-3, ESSM, SM-6, Tomahawk, and VL-ASROC missiles, supplemented by eight Harpoon launchers, two 127 mm Mk 45 Mod 4 guns, two Phalanx Block 1B gun systems, and six 324 mm torpedo tubes. Its sensors included the AN/SPY-1A/B radar, the SPG-62 fire-control radar, and the SQQ-89 sonar, while its hangars accommodated two MH-60R helicopters. A nominal crew of 330 therefore operated a ship capable of combined area air defense, ballistic missile defense, land attack, anti-submarine warfare, surface warfare, and aviation support. The USS Vicksburg also represented the second, more heavily armed Ticonderoga configuration.

The first five ships, USS Ticonderoga (CG-47) through USS Thomas S. Gates (CG-51), carried Mk 26 twin-arm launchers with 88 missile positions, while USS Bunker Hill (CG-52) through USS Port Royal (CG-73) received 122 Mk 41 cells, increasing nominal missile capacity by 34 launchers (38.6%). The Ticonderoga was also the first operational warship class ever fitted with the Aegis Combat System after the USS Norton Sound (AVM-1) began testing the SPY-1 in 1973, as the USS Ticonderoga entered service in January 1983. The USS Vicksburg subsequently helped extend the Aegis beyond single-ship engagements, enabling the maturation of the Cooperative Engagement Capability. In May 2000, the USS Vicksburg and the USS Hué City conducted live-fire tests against five targets, including low- and high-altitude threats under severe electronic countermeasure conditions.

The trials included engage-on-remote, allowing one ship to complete an engagement using targeting information from another ship. The USS Vicksburg's operational record also shows how sharply it was concentrated entirely before modernization. The cruiser first deployed in 1994 with the USS Saratoga battle group, operating off Montenegro during Operations Deny Flight and Provide Promise before participating in Dynamic Impact 94, Able Vigil and Uphold Democracy. During a deployment ending in March 1996, it supported Operation Southern Watch and conducted more than 85 maritime interdiction boardings to enforce sanctions against Iraq. The Vicksburg then deployed with the USS John F. Kennedy battle group in 1997 and 2002, supported Operation Enduring Freedom, and on June 16, 2002, launched an embarked SH-60B off Oman to evacuate mariners from al Murthada after eight days adrift.

It returned to the Middle East on a surge deployment in 2006, operated in the Persian Gulf with the Dwight D. Eisenhower group in 2009, deployed to Northern Europe in 2010, and accompanied the USS Enterprise on that carrier's final deployment in 2012. Its final deployment began on December 4, 2014, and included duty as Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 flagship, operations in the Black Sea in March 2015, Joint Warrior 15-1, and Dynamic Mongoose. When the USS Vicksburg returned to Mayport on July 11, 2015, its deployable career was effectively finished despite another nine years remaining before formal decommissioning, as the underlying constraint was partly structural. The Ticonderoga design transformed a 6,900-ton Spruance-class destroyer hull into a cruiser displacing roughly 9,600 long tons, an increase of about 2,700 tons (39%).

Separate forward and aft deckhouses accommodated the SPY-1 arrays and their associated equipment, but decades of radar, computing, communications, electronic warfare, and weapons upgrades consumed increasingly limited weight, electrical-power, and cooling margins. This made later life extensions dependent not only on the replacement of the combat system, but also on aging hull, mechanical, and electrical equipment. Across five Ticonderoga-class cruisers that reached full modernization periods, the planned spending of $2.44 billion increased by $881 million (36%), while the wider program generated roughly 9,000 contract changes.

The USS Vicksburg was therefore one component of a broader modernization outcome: the Navy spent $3.7 billion on seven Ticonderogas beginning in 2015, but only Gettysburg, Chosin and Cape St. George completed or were scheduled to complete modernization. Hué City, Anzio, Cowpens, and Vicksburg were retired without returning to deployment after $1.84 billion had been spent on them, including $161.15 million, $250.54 million, $678.56 million, and $745.05 million, respectively, through September 30, 2023. Meanwhile, only five of the original 27 Ticonderoga-class cruisers remained active after the September 2026 retirements, leaving just 18.5% of the class that fundamentally changed how the U.S. Navy conducted its fleet air defense.

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Written by Jérôme Brahy

Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Ukraine, Russia, South Korea, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.