By Jayvee Vallejera
Instead of towing old Navy cruisers to a boneyard or scrapping them for parts, they could be repurposed and moored around Guam to provide an additional layer of defense against air and missile threats, according to an article on the defense website, The Warzone.
The article titled “Decommissioned Navy Cruisers Could be the Answer to Guam’s Missile Defense Needs” written by Joseph Trevithick, suggests that Ticonderoga class cruisers, which are scheduled for decommissioning could still be used in tandem with the Navy’s newer defense and radar systems.
The Navy cruisers may be deployed around Guam to serve as an additional barrier against missile attacks, the article said.
Repurposing these cruisers will enable the U.S. military to protect Guam quickly, effectively, and affordably, it added.
According to Naval News, the decommissioning schedule for the U.S. Navy’s remaining 13 Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruisers has been set. Some were decommissioned this year while others will retire in 2027.
The Ticonderoga-class is a group of guided-missile cruisers in the U.S. Navy with an advanced Aegis Combat System and armed with various types of missiles and weaponry. According to the article, there are presently 21 of these ships in active service.
Not everything is set in stone yet, but the Navy outlined plans in its most recent budget request to retire its seven oldest Ticonderoga class cruisers as they are becoming too expensive to operate due to overdue maintenance, especially their fuel tanks, which have been known to leak, according to a white paper the Washington, D.C.-based Heritage Foundation issued in August.
This comes even as the U.S. Army's deployment of an anti-missile defense system in Guam is now taking shape. It would consist of land- and sea-based defensive assets that would protect the territory from incoming cruise missiles, among other threats.
A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system is currently stationed on Guam.
Threats to the island—primarily from hostile nations in the region—have prompted the military to expand its defense infrastructure, including building a divert airfield on the nearby island of Tinian.
The U.S. military is also strengthening partnerships with allied nations in the Western Pacific to support defense and security initiatives.
The U.S. military plans to build a fixed Aegis Ashore missile defense system on Guam, but Navy Vice Adm. Jon Hill, who heads the Missile Defense Agency, was quoted as saying this might not be enough to provide full protection.
Hill said Guam needs a “distributed defense system that could include subterranean and mobile components.”
The War Zone said the Ticonderoga-class cruisers could provide similar coverage and capacity to a single Aegis Ashore site. “Using more than one in this way might provide a cost-effective way to generate even more defensive capacity in the near term,” it added.
Decommissioned ships have limited mobility and only need to be towed or escorted from one site to another, which means there will be no need for a full complement of personnel to man the cruisers.
They will retain their ability to launch weapons at targets at sea and on land and these vessels and their skeleton crews could also be repositioned as needed.
Because of these cruisers’ limited capabilities, they would not need to rely on onboard sensors to detect threats. Instead, they could work in tandem with other U.S. military assets at sea, on land, in the air and in space.
The article notes that the Pentagon is already planning to set up a sophisticated radar array in Hawaii and has proposed another in Palau “to provide additional sensor coverage to spot air and missile threats. Another could be installed ashore on Guam.”
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