Tag Archives: USS Gettysburg (CG-64)

Tico meets Vespucci

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How about this great series of images showing one of the last precious Ticonderoga-class cruisers in service, USS Gettysburg (CG 64), alongside the “most beautiful ship in the world,” Amerigo Vespucci, in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility.

U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY (Feb. 3, 2025) The Italian training ship Amerigo Vespucci sails in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. (Official U.S. Navy photo)

U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY (Feb. 3, 2025) The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg (CG 64), left, sails next to the Italian training ship Amerigo Vespucci, right, in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. (Official U.S. Navy photo)

U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY (Feb. 3, 2025) The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg (CG 64), left, sails next to the Italian training ship Amerigo Vespucci, right, in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. (Official U.S. Navy photo)

U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY (Feb. 3, 2025) The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg (CG 64), right, sails next to the Italian training ship Amerigo Vespucci, left, in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. (Official U.S. Navy photo)

As noted by Commander, Naval Surface Force Atlantic:

This meeting at sea represents more than just two ships crossing paths—it symbolizes strengthened alliances, shared commitment to maritime security, and the importance of interoperability between partner nations. As global threats evolve, maintaining strong international partnerships is key to deterring aggression and safeguarding international commerce. By sailing together, Gettysburg and Amerigo Vespucci embody the spirit of unity and cooperation that strengthens collective maritime defense and ensures a free and open maritime domain.

Notably, Vespucci just completed her Grande Equipaggio world cruise, while Gettysburg in 2023 returned to sea after eight years with the completion of her drawn-out CG Phased Modernization Plan.

The cruiser was scheduled to retire next year, a move the Navy recently extended to 2029, after which only Vespucci will endure on the seas.

U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY (Feb. 3, 2025) The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg (CG 64), right, breaks away from the Italian training ship Amerigo Vespucci, left, in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. (Official U.S. Navy photo)

Navy to Wring out another Decade from 3 Ticos

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Following a decision to pencil whip the service lives of 12 early Flight I Arleigh Burke-class (DDG 51) destroyers, pushing each beyond its 35-year expected service life to gain another 48 “ship years” in total from the high-mileage Cold Warriors, SECNAV made a similar announcement that will slow roll the retirement of a trio of Ticonderoga class cruisers.

We’ve been chronicling the snuff film that is the Ticos’ departure at the same confusing time that several class members have just completed very lengthy (up to 8 years per hull) and very expensive (you don’t want to know the cost) modernizations.

That odd duality caught up to the SECNAV at just the right time when the Navy’s frigate replacement class had lapsed years behind schedule.

From the Navy:

The Department of the Navy plans to operate three Ticonderoga-class (CG 47) cruisers beyond their expected service life: USS Gettysburg (CG 64), USS Chosin (CG 65), and USS Cape St. George (CG 71). This decision adds 10 years of cumulative ship service life from fiscal year 2026 to 2029.

All three cruisers received extensive hull, mechanical, and engineering, as well as combat system upgrades as part of an extended modernization program. USS Gettysburg (CG 64) and USS Chosin (CG 65) completed modernization in fiscal year 2023 and fiscal year 2024, respectively. USS Cape St. George (CG 71) is on schedule to complete modernization this fiscal year.

Further, the Navy pointed out that Chosin recently broke new ground in the respect that she pulled off a successful VLS re-arm at sea demonstration last month. The Transferrable Reload At-sea Mechanism (TRAM) demonstration was the first time the Navy transferred missile canisters from a replenishment ship to a warship while at sea.

The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Chosin (CG 65) steams alongside the Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo ship USNS Washington Chambers (T-AKE 11) during an at-sea demonstration of the Transferrable Reload At-sea Method (TRAM) while underway in the Pacific Ocean Oct. 11, 2024. Sailors aboard Chosin used the hydraulically- powered TRAM device to load an empty missile canister into the ship’s MK 41 Vertical Launching System (VLS) while off the coast of San Diego. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Charlotte Dudenhoeffer)

Second CG finishes Modernization Program

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Built at Ingalls in Pascagoula, USS Chosin was ordered in 1986 and delivered in 1991. She has been in modernization since December 2019– but that is soon set to end. Official caption: PEARL HARBOR (March 26, 2012) The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Chosin (CG 65) conducts exercises off the coast of Hawaii following a departure from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Daniel Barker/Released) 120326-N-RI884-150

We reported last week about the old USS Gettysburg getting ready to return to sea after eight years with the completion of her drawn-out CG Phased Modernization Plan.

Well, she is fixing to get some company. Almost like an old home week for the Lehman-era 600-ship Navy.

This, from Seattle-based Vigor on G’burg’s sistership, USS Chosin (CG 65), finished her 1.7 million hour CGMP in just three years (well, technically Chosin was taken offline in 2019, so really like four years but who’s counting), while sister USS Cape St. George (CG 71) is set to follow:

Three-year, highly complex maintenance project was largest in Vigor’s history 

Seattle, WA (February 28, 2023) – Vigor, a Titan company, successfully completed a three-year modernization project on USS Chosin (CG 65) at its Harbor Island shipyard today, sending the U.S. Navy ship back to its homeport of Naval Station Everett. The project, which encompassed more than 1.7 million hours of work for Vigor employees, in addition to work by dozens of subcontractors and the U.S. Navy, was one of the largest, longest and most complex in Vigor’s history.  

“Vigor’s completion of USS Chosin in Seattle represents an incredible success for our skilled workers and the hundreds of people who worked on this project over the last three years,” said Adam Beck, Executive Vice President of Ship Repair for Vigor. “Vigor employees and our many partners successfully managed this very complex project through the COVID-19 pandemic, ultimately returning the ship to the U.S. Navy to continue its service to our nation. We are honored to support the U.S. Navy, and are grateful to all who made this success possible.” 

Vigor employees devoted approximately 1.7 million hours to USS Chosin over the last three years, modernizing weapons, communications, and information systems, as well as upgrading many other areas of the ship. They worked in close partnership with the team from the Northwest Regional Maintenance Center (NWRMC) at Naval Station Everett, where USS Chosin is homeported.    

Work on USS Chosin commenced alongside USS Cape St. George (CG 71), which is also scheduled to be completed this year. Both maintenance projects were awarded to Vigor together in 2019.  

“This project was not only important to the Navy and our national defense, it also supported more than 600 family-wage jobs at the Harbor Island shipyard,” Beck said. “This steady work has allowed Vigor to grow the capacity of our skilled workforce in support of Navy readiness and supported industrial jobs and the local economy.” 

As USS Chosin leaves Harbor Island, two other U.S. Navy ships remain at the facility, including USS Cape St. George and USS John Paul Jones (DDG 53). Vigor’s support for the Navy also extends beyond Seattle, with USS Tulsa (LCS 16) currently undergoing maintenance at Swan Island in Portland, OR, and USS Michael Murphy (DDG 112) nearing the end of its availability in Hawaii.  

Deeds Not Words…

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After almost eight years locked in port as part of the Navy’s troubled CG Phased Modernization Plan, the Tico-class Aegis cruiser USS Gettysburg (CG 64) saw blue water again last week on a short cruise under her own steam.

The Bath-built ship, commissioned on 22 June 1991, has been in what would have been described in the old days as “in ordinary” since September 2015 when she shifted homeports from Mayport to Norfolk and entered the CG Mod pipeline.

Gettysburg and sister USS Cowpens started in 2015, followed by USS Vicksburg and USS Chosin in 2016, USS Anzio and USS Cape St. George in 2017, and USS Hue City in 2019. 

Each upgrade, originally set for at least 11 cruisers, was set to be accomplished in three phases: tear out, repair, and modernization.

The thing is, it turned out the 25-year-old ships needed a lot more repair than was estimated, particularly with fuel tank issues, hull systems, and piping, then shipyard worker shortages, and finally supply chain issues all dog-piled to stretch the planned multi-month overhaul to multi-year. This was all compounded by the fact that the ships often sat undermanned with just 45 sailor crews for years waiting for the next phase of the program to get started.

“The cruisers right now and the modernization are running 175 to 200 percent above estimated costs, hundreds of days delay. These ships were intended to have a 30-year service life, we’re out to 35,” CNO ADM Mike Gilday told the House Armed Services Committee in 2021.

Speaking of cost, Hue City and Anzio alone were expected to run $1.5 billion each over the course of the CG Mod program, which led the Navy to add them to their “dead pool” of seven cruisers to decommission in FY22. To this was added Vicksburg, even though she was about 85 percent of the way through the CG Mod program meant to extend the life of the ship.

With all that being said, it is nice to see Gettysburg close to being complete. It’s been a long time coming.

Gettysburg in better days, seen here in a yard photo by Bath Iron Works in March 1991 on her builder’s trials. 330-CFD-DN-SC-91-07483

The Gray Ghost arrives on Yankee Station

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Official Caption: “The biggest and fastest guns operating in the Tonkin Gulf belong to the USS NEWPORT NEWS (CA-148). Her 8-inch/55 caliber rapid-fire guns rake North Vietnamese targets daily during Operation Sea Dragon. The NEWPORT NEWS arrived on Yankee Station in October 1967 to enter combat for the first time in her 19 years, 11 October 1967.”

Photographer, Journalist First Class Willard B. Bass, Jr. USN, Wed, Oct 11, 1967, 1127808 National Archives

Commissioned 29 January 1949, “The Gray Ghost from the East Coast,” was a 21,000-ton Des Moines-class heavy cruiser. The pinnacle of U.S. big-gun cruisers, only eclipsed by the ill-fated Alaska-class battlecruisers, Newport News and her sisters Des Moines and Salem (CA-139) carried nine 8″/55 cal Mk 16 RF guns in three 450-ton triple turrets that used automatic shell handling and loading to produce a rate of fire three times greater than that of previous 8″ (20.3 cm) guns.

They could zip out an impressive 10 rounds per minute, per gun, or 90 x 260lb shells in 60 seconds.

Oof.

Forward 8-inch main guns of the heavy cruiser USS Newport News and spent cases after a mission off Vietnam.

Newport News would fire more than 50,000 shells on her 1967 deployment including one incident on 19 December when she exchanged fire with as many as 28 separate North Vietnamese shore batteries, simultaneously, being bracketed by 300 enemy shells without taking a hit.

Newport News would return to Yankee Station two more times before she was decommissioned in 1975, the last all-gun heavy cruiser in U.S. service.

Newport News firing on the gun line in Vietnam during the Easter Offensive 1972

She was scrapped in 1993.

This week, however, a model of the Gray Ghost was moved into the gallery of the Hampton Roads Naval Museum by a contingent of sailors from the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg (CG-64). The model is incorporated into a larger exhibit, “The Ten Thousand-Day War at Sea: The US Navy in Vietnam, 1950-1975.”

The new exhibit opened on Wednesday.