1980s era US Ticonderoga class cruisers,
9 remaining in active service:
Choppo: "There are only a handful of the Ticonderoga class ships left.
They dominate the sea for 40+ years.
It’s fast and cost effective for the Navy to just build them again instead of wasting time and resources on those fancy smart ships."
The US Navy is overhauling three of its nine remaining old Ticonderogas (of the 27 originally built), with the idea of adding another 10 years to their active life.
The overhaul cost is pushing up close to $1 billion per ship, which sounds like a lot, but is still far less than the newest Arleigh Burke Flight IIIs.
Those are now running close to $3 billion per.
And the new Arleigh Burke Flight IIIs (9,900 tons) are larger than the old Ticonderogas (9,600 tons).
Yes, Arleigh Burkes do have slightly fewer VLS cells, but their advanced radars are the best we have (SPY-6).
In the end, it appears that the US will replace its original 27 1980s-era Ticonderogas with 19 new Arleigh Burke Flight IIIs, plus the existing 73 older Arleigh Burke versions.
Add to those some 20 Constellation class frigates ($1.2 billion each), which carry only half the VLS cells of an Arleigh Burke but will have more advanced radars (EASR) than the Ticonderogas.
Arleigh Burke destroyer
Flight IIIs are larger than the old Ticonderogas:
So, bottom line: Arleigh Burkes are, in effect, being promoted to cruisers, replacing Ticonderogas, while Constellation frigates will be capable of doing most older destroyer missions.
Do we really need all this?
Well, it seems the CCP Chinese are outbuilding us by several-to-one, and their technical competence appears to advance by leaps & bounds every year.
So, what was, years ago, the latest in our state-of-the-art Ticonderogas from the 1980s, just won't cut it today.
Also, in the meantime, some 25 LCSs are still looking for their real purpose in life (beyond catching drug smugglers for the Coast Guard), and I suspect that would turn out to be really bad-assed, high-speed, close-in support for Marine amphibious assault units, if only LCSs had some serious weapons...
Constellation frigate, almost as large as, and far more capable than, the old Spruance destroyers:
LCS firing Naval Strike Missile (NSM), range: 100 miles:
LCS also carry shorter range (~5 miles) RAMs, Hellfires, a 57 mm cannon, multiple machine guns and, potentially, a 150 kW laser weapon:
