For nearly four years, the Bush administration has focused on a no-holds-barred transformation of the U.S. military to meet daunting, if ambiguous, 21st-century asymmetrical threats and challenges to security at home and abroad. That review has resulted in the cancellation of some Cold War-era weapons—for example, the Army's Crusader gun system and the Comanche attack helicopter—and, in other cases, a radical restructuring of global force posture and structure and investment for the future.
For the U.S. Navy, this has meant the accelerated decommissioning of warships too expensive to operate or assessed as "not operationally effective." Coupled with dangerously low ship-production rates, this has resulted in a drop in active force structure from 594 ships in 1987 to 295 ships in mid-2004—the smallest fleet since 1917. More reductions are planned, including the early decommissioning of the first five "Baseline 1" Ticonderoga (CG-47)-class Aegis guided-missile cruisers only two decades into planned 35-year service lives. Navy documentation indicates that these five cruisers are less capable than the Arleigh Burke (DDG-51)-class Aegis guided-missile destroyers, particularly in the strike warfare mission area, and are more expensive to operate.
Greater manning requirements contribute to annual operating and support costs of about $60 million for each ship and totaling nearly $1.8 billion across the Fiscal Year 2005 Future Years Defense Plan. With a growing need to focus increasingly scarce resources on tomorrow's fleet and modernizing "legacy assets" only when it makes best business sense to do so, the Navy expects the cost-avoidance generated by decommissioning these five ships and not attempting a "cruiser conversion" program (in all, more than $3 billion) will help offset the cost of recapitalizing the force and constructing the Navy's next-generation surface warships. The Ticonderoga was decommissioned on 30 September 2004 and, with the other four Baseline 1 warships, will be consigned to a "ghost fleet" somewhere in the United States, or, worse, could be sunk as a target or cannibalized and sold for scrap.
Aegis was a far-reaching "revolution at sea" when the Ticonderoga was commissioned in 1983 and ushered in a radical transformation of naval warfare. Capable of tracking several hundred air targets at ranges beyond 200 nautical miles and engaging some 20 targets simultaneously, even today she could take on most of the world's air forces single-handedly without breaking a sweat. Unlike other old soldiers that "just fade away," however, unless fate intervenes, the "Tico" and her sisters may well die.
There is a better fate for the Ticonderoga: conversion to a museum ship to provide a "bully pulpit" to explain to generations of Americans and visitors to the United States the vital roles, missions, and tasks of the U.S. Navy. Interactive monitors and "canned" scenarios viewed in her combat information center could dramatically illustrate the need for effective fleet antiair warfare and show the evolution from defeating kamikaze threats in the Pacific during World War II, to countering the threat of massed Soviet Backfire raids and antiship cruise missiles during the Cold War, to ship-based national ballistic missile defense against rogue states in this century. Similar information and displays could underscore the multi-mission capabilities of the Navy's current surface warships.
And, the Tico would be an ideal means to underscore the significant contributions of Rear Admiral Wayne E. Meyer, "Father of Aegis," to the Navy and the nation. "Build a little . . , test a little . . . build a little more" was his mantra, and it was the foundation for what is universally regarded as one of only a handful of highly successful military programs since the end of World War II.
Ideally, the Ticonderoga would replace the Barry (DD-933) as the museum ship at the Washington Navy Yard. With her near-state-of-the-art weapons and sensors, the Ticonderoga would have a "Wow!" factor that the 49-year-old Barry never can hope to attain. And, being a stone's throw from Capitol Hill, the museum ship Ticonderoga could serve in an effective congressionalliaison role and as an impressive venue for a variety of functions. Finally, she could be a key element in the District of Columbia's plans for revitalizing the southeast waterfront.
If the dredging of the Anacostia River that would be necessary to put the Ticonderoga at the Washington Navy Yard proves to be too expensive, there are other candidate locations for a suitable resting place, including Baltimore, New York, Norfolk, Philadelphia, and San Diego, to name a few. The bottom line is that it would be a damn shame to let the lead ship of the class that truly transformed the U.S. Navy die.
Dr. Truver is group vice president of national security programs at Anteon Corporation, and has provided research and analytical support to the Aegis program since May 1977.