Крейсер «Тикондерога»: История и утилизация

Ticonderoga class cruiser

USS Ticonderoga (DDG/CG 47), nicknamed "Tico", was a guided missile cruiser built for the United States Navy. She was the lead ship of the Ticonderoga class and the first U. S. Navy combatant to incorporate the Aegis combat system. Originally ordered as a guided missile destroyer, she was redesignated as a cruiser after capabilities from the cancelled Strike cruiser program were implemented into the ship's design. The new AEGIS system allowed Ticonderoga to track and engage many aerial targets more effectively than any previous U. S. Navy warship. Ticonderoga entered service in 1983 and deployed later that year to the Mediterranean. Although she was built with a 35 year service life, the limited missile capacity of Ticonderoga's twin Mark 26 missile launch systems rendered her obsolete by the end of the Cold War. As a result, Ticonderoga adopted a primary mission of counternarcotics in the 1990s and 2000s, and made multiple patrols of the Caribbean in that role. After being decommissioned in 2004, Ticonderoga was stored at the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia. She arrived in Brownsville, Texas, for scrapping in 2020.

The contract to build DDG 47 Ticonderoga was awarded to Ingalls Shipbuilding on 22 September 1978. The ship's design was based on that of the Spruance class destroyer. While sharing the same hull, the Ticonderoga class design featured two large deckhouses and the Aegis combat system that together increased the ship's displacement from the Spruance class baseline of 6,900 tons to 9,600 tons. On each of the two deckhouses were two AN/SPY 1 radars that gave the ship 360° coverage of the surrounding airspace. Following the cancellation of the Strike Cruiser program, flagship capabilities were added to the Ticonderoga class's design and the ship was then redesignated as a guided missile cruiser, CG 47 on 1 January 1980, shortly before her keel was laid. Ticonderoga's keel was laid down on 21 January 1980, the 35th anniversary of the devastating kamikaze attack on the aircraft carrier Ticonderoga. CG 47 was launched on 25 April 1981 and christening on 16 May 1981 with First Lady Nancy Reagan, the ship's main sponsor, in attendance. Ticonderoga was delivered to the U. S. Navy on 13 December 1982 and commissioned in Pascagoula, Mississippi, on 22 January 1983 with Captain Roland Guilbault in command.

CG 47 is the fifth United States Navy vessel to bear the name Ticonderoga. She was named for the Capture of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775, the start of the American offensive during the American Revolution. The name "Ticonderoga" is derived from the Iroquois word tekontaró:ken, meaning "it is at the junction of two waterways". Most of the ships in the Ticonderoga class are similarly named for significant battles in U. S. history.

Ticonderoga was featured in the 1986 Tom Clancy novel Red Storm Rising, defending the Nimitz and Saratoga combined battlegroups against, and getting seriously damaged by, the saturation antiship missile attack in the Norwegian Sea by Soviet Tu 22M bombers. Ticonderoga was mentioned in the Tom Waits song "Shore Leave" on his 1983 album Swordfishtrombones.