USS Ticonderoga (CG-47)

USS Ticonderoga (DDG/CG-47) is a decommissioned guided-missile cruiser of the United States Navy. Homeported in Pascagoula, Mississippi, the "Tico" is the lead ship of her class.

For other ships with the same name, see USS Ticonderoga.

History
United States
Name: Ticonderoga
Namesake: Battle of Ticonderoga
Ordered:
  • 22 September 1978
  • (as DDG-47)
Builder: Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Mississippi
Laid down: 21 January 1980
Launched: 25 April 1981
Sponsored by: Nancy Reagan
Christened: 16 May 1981
Commissioned: 22 January 1983
Decommissioned: 30 September 2004
Stricken: 30 September 2004
Identification:
Motto: "First AEGIS Cruiser"
Nickname(s): Tico[1]
Status: Stricken, to be disposed of. Reserved in the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility, Philadelphia[2]
Badge:
General characteristics
Class and type: Ticonderoga-class cruiser
Displacement: Approx. 9,600 long tons (9,800 t) full load
Length: 567 feet (173 m)
Beam: 55 feet (16.8 meters)
Draft: 34 feet (10.2 meters)
Propulsion:
Speed: 32.5 knots (60 km/h; 37.4 mph)
Complement: 30 officers and 300 enlisted
Sensors and
processing systems:
  • AN/SPY-1A/B multi-function radar
  • AN/SPS-49 air search radar
  • AN/SPG-62 fire control radar
  • AN/SPS-73 surface search radar
  • AN/SPQ-9 gun fire control radar
  • AN/SLQ-32 Electronic Warfare Suite
  • AN/SQQ-89(V)1/3 - A(V)15 Sonar suite, consisting of:
    • AN/SQS-53B/C/D active sonar
    • AN/SQR-19 TACTAS, AN/SQR-19B ITASS, & MFTA passive sonar
    • AN/SQQ-28 light airborne multi-purpose system
Armament:
Aircraft carried: 2 × Sikorsky SH-60B or MH-60R Seahawk LAMPS III helicopters.

Ticonderoga was the first combatant ship to feature the Aegis combat system (a limited version of the system had been tested on Norton Sound). This allows the ship to track and engage multiple targets (aircraft) much more effectively than any ship previously.

Etymology

CG-47 is the fifth United States Navy vessel to carry on the name Ticonderoga. The ship was the fifth ship named for the Capture of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775.[3] She was also named after the Essex-class aircraft carrier Ticonderoga (CV-14) that was nearly sunk during World War II. Most of the ships in the Ticonderoga class are similarly named for significant battles in U.S. history. The name "Ticonderoga" comes from an Iroquois word tekontaró:ken, meaning "it is at the junction of two waterways".[4]

History
U.S. First Lady Nancy Reagan christens USS Ticonderoga on 16 May 1981; she was a main sponsor of the ship's building.

The United States Navy built the first Aegis cruisers using the hull and machinery designs of Spruance-class destroyers. Ticonderoga was ordered as a guided missile destroyer, but redesignated as a cruiser before she was laid down.

The contract to build DDG-47 Ticonderoga was awarded to Ingalls Shipbuilding on 22 September 1978. On 1 January 1980, she was redesignated as a guided missile cruiser, CG-47. Her keel was laid down on 21 January 1980, the 35th anniversary of the devastating kamikaze attack on the Essex-class aircraft carrier Ticonderoga. CG-47 was launched on 25 April 1981 and was delivered on 13 December 1982. She was commissioned on 22 January 1983 with First Lady Nancy Reagan, the ship's main sponsor, having the honor of christening the ship on 16 May 1981. The first Captain of the ship was Roland George Guilbault who later became an Admiral.

In the late 1980s, she served in the Persian Gulf as part of Operation Earnest Will while under the command of Captain James M. Arrison III, USN.

On 8 September 1984, a fire broke out in the aft main engine exhaust uptake at 0208, while operating approximately 180 nautical miles east of Mayport, Fl. The At-Sea and General Quarters fire parties eventually put the fire out, and Ticonderoga returned to Norfolk under her own power (4-6 October). For a time in the late 1990s, she was based at Pascagoula, Mississippi, as part of Commander, Naval Surface Forces Atlantic's Westerns Hemisphere Group.

Ticonderoga is towed from Naval Station Pascagoula immediately following her decommissioning on 30 September 2004.

On 4 May 2004, she completed transit of the Panama Canal and then moved to cross the equator. Her ship crew engaged in the rites and rituals of the crossing, inducting the Captain of the ship as well as many of the crew in to 'Shell-Backs'. She completed her final deployment on 3 August 2004, Ticonderoga enjoyed liberty ports in Cozumel, Mexico (15-17 March); Colon (27-28 March); Mayport (1-9 April); Guantánamo Bay (12-13 April); Cartagena, Colombia (27-29 May); Vasco Núñez de Balboa, Panama (6-7 May); Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala (17-19 May). She conducted counter-narcotics operations in conjunction with Colombian military authorities from April-June. Ticonderoga successfully intercepted five of the cigarette-shaped “go-fast” smuggling boats, and one fishing vessel, netting over 14,000 pounds of cocaine, detaining 25 suspects in the process. She was decommissioned on 30 September of that year. After her decommissioning, she was towed to the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia. In 2010 she was offered for museum donation by the Navy. There was an effort to bring Ticonderoga to Pascagoula, Mississippi, where she was built, to serve as a museum ship.[5] In May 2013, the vessel was formally stricken from the Naval Vessel Register, for disposal.[6] In October of the same year, The Ticonderoga Historical Society reported that the US Navy was going to scrap the ship after a number of potential museum sites were unable to add her to their collections.[7] In June 2014, NAVSEA released a disposal reporting letter declaring the ex-Ticonderoga to be available for inspection by bidders and ready for disposal by scrapping or sinking.[8] As of September 2019, the ship remained in Philadelphia.[9]

The former USS Ticonderoga at berth at the Philadelphia Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in January 2008.

Awards

Ticonderoga was featured in the 1986 Tom Clancy novel Red Storm Rising, defending the Nimitz and Saratoga battlegroups against the saturation anti-ship missile attack in the Norwegian Sea by Soviet bombers.

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References

This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here.

  1. Cushman Jr., John H. (19 December 1987). "Navy Puts Its 'Spotter' Near the Gulf". New York Times. Retrieved 13 March 2009.
  2. "CG-47". Naval Vessel Register. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
  3. GlobalSecurity.org USS Ticonderoga (CG-47).
  4. Afable, Patricia O.; Beeler, Madison S. (1996). "Place Names". In Sturtevant, William C.; Goddard, Ives (eds.). Handbook of North American Indians. 17 Languages. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. p. 193. ISBN 9780874741971.
  5. "USS Ticonderoga to be floating museum". Ships Monthly. April 2010.
  6. "Ticonderoga (CG-47)". Naval Vessel Register. May 2013. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
  7. "USS Ticonderoga (CG-47) To be Scrapped?". Ticonderoga Historical Society website. 20 October 2013. Archived from the original on 7 June 2014. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  8. "Disposal Reporting Letter for Ex-Ticonderoga (CG-47)" (PDF). 17 June 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 August 2014. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  9. "Inactive ship inventory" (PDF). NAVSEA, US Navy. 27 September 2016.
  10. "Naval Vessel Historical Evaluation CG-47 Final Determination" (PDF). US Navy NAVSEA. 10 November 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 August 2014. Retrieved 17 August 2014.

Further reading
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