АҚШ «Тикондерога» классы крейсері: USS Port Royal тарихы

US Ticonderoga class cruiser

USS Port Royal (CG 73) was a guided missile cruiser that served in the United States Navy. She was commissioned on 9 July 1994, as the 27th and final ship of the class. Port Royal was named in honor of the two naval battles of Port Royal Sound, South Carolina, one during the American Revolutionary War, the other during the American Civil War. She was decommissioned on 29 September 2022. The ship is the second to bear the name, with the first being a steam powered, side wheel gunboat, from New York City, in commission from 1862 to 1866.

The second Port Royal (CG 73) was assigned hull number CG 69 on 9 May 1989, but that number was reassigned to guided missile cruiser Vicksburg and CG 73 to Port Royal on 8 December 1989; was laid down on 18 October 1991, at Pascagoula, Mississippi, by Ingalls Shipbuilding, Litton Industries; launched on 20 November 1992; sponsored by Susan G. Baker (wife of James A. Baker III, Chief of Staff to President George H. W. Bush and former Secretary of State); and commissioned at Savannah, Georgia, on 9 July 1994.

Port Royal deployed from December 1995 until June 1996, as part of the Nimitz battle group Carrier Group Seven. The CVBG was participating in Operation Southern Watch, but was deployed to the South China Sea in March 1996, to act as a stabilizing force the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis. During this deployment, Captain Richards transferred command to Captain Gary Roughead on 21 January 1996. Following her first deployment, Port Royal became the first U. S. cruiser to integrate women into the crew. Port Royal deployed with the Nimitz battle group for participation in Operation Southern Watch from September 1997 until March 1998. Port Royal deployed with the John C. Stennis battle group, participating in Operation Southern Watch. Leaving in January 2000, she returned to Hawaii early after sustaining damage to her port shaft and Hub during pursuit of a vessel suspected of smuggling Iraqi oil in violation of U. N. sanctions. She returned in June and then in August went into drydock for repairs and upgrades. Port Royal deployed early Pearl Harbor on 17 November 2001, to join the John C. Stennis battle group on deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. In March 2003, she was assigned to Carrier Group Seven. Port Royal deployed with Peleliu Expeditionary Strike Group One (ESG 1) in support of the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) from 3 September 2003 until 11 March 2004. This was the very first deployment of an Expeditionary Strike Group. Port Royal deployed with Peleliu Expeditionary Strike Group Three (ESG 3) in support of the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) from 27 February 2006 until 5 August 2006. On 6 January 2008, the destroyer Hopper, Port Royal and the frigate Ingraham were entering the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz when five Iranian boats approached them at high speed and in a threatening manner. The U. S. ships had been in the Arabian Sea searching for a sailor who had been missing from Hopper for one day. The U. S. Navy says the Iranian boats made "threatening" moves toward the U. S. vessels, coming as close as The U. S. Navy allegedly received a radio transmission saying, "I am coming at you. You will explode in a couple of minutes." As the U. S. ships prepared to fire, the Iranians abruptly turned away, the U. S. officials said. Before leaving, the Iranians dropped white boxes into the water in front of the U. S. ships. The U. S. ships did not investigate the boxes. Officials from the two nations differed on the severity of the incident. The Iranians claimed they were conducting normal maneuvers while American officials claimed that an imminent danger to American naval vessels existed. Rear Admiral Dixon R. Smith, who was aboard the ship, assumed temporary command on that day, and on 9 February, Captain John Lauer III, an official in Smith's Naval Surface Group Middle Pacific, assumed command. The warship suffered heavy damage to the underwater bow sonar dome and to her propellers and propeller shafts and was dry docked for repairs. Captain Neil Parrott was assigned to preside over the investigation into the grounding. On 18 February, the ship entered Dry Dock Number 4 at Pearl Harbor. The navy estimated that repairs would cost between $25 and $40 million. The ship left dry dock on 24 September 2009 but needed several more weeks of repair and assessment before returning to duty.

In May 2013, to answer queries made by Congress, Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) reported that the condition of the ship was comparable to certain other cruisers in the same class and that the effects of the grounding might not have been as severe as had been previously thought. A full report on the ship and her condition was anticipated in early August 2013.

In 2020, a U. S. Navy budget plan proposed putting Port Royal, as well as her sisters Monterey, Shiloh, and Vella Gulf, on a path to early decommissioning, as they had not been modernized. In December 2020 the U. S. Navy's Report to Congress on the Annual Long Range Plan for Construction of Naval Vessels stated that the ship was planned to be placed Out of Commission in Reserve in 2022. The ship was officially decommissioned at Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam, Hawaii on 29 September 2022 as of 2022, her final disposition remains pending.