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Ticonderoga Class
Ticonderoga class cruisers
warships use phased-array radar; the increased
combat capability offered by the Aegis combat
system and the AN/SPY-1 radar system justified
the changing of the classification of Ticonderoga
and Yorktown from DDG (guided missile destroyer)
to CG (guided missile cruiser). Vincennes
and Valley Forge may or may not have been
authorized as DDGs; regardless, the DDG sequence
continued with USS Arleigh Burke as DDG-51.
In addition to the added
radar capability, the Ticonderoga class built
after Thomas S. Gates are outfitted with two
Vertical Launching System (or VLS). The two
VLS systems allow the ship to have 127 launch
tubes that can carry a wide variety of missiles,
including the Tomahawk cruise missile, the
Standard surface-to-air missile, and the ASROC
anti-submarine missile. However, more importantly,
the VLS system enables all missiles to be
fully standing by at any given time, shortening
the ship's reaction time. The rest have MK.
26 twin arm launchers.
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