After 35 years of service, the US Navy has retired the cruiser USS San Jacinto

As part of its fleet modernization plans, the US Navy continues the initiative to retire several of its oldest structures with the aim of integrating new units and increasing their capabilities. Within this project, The US Navy has retired the cruiser USS San JacintoIt is a ship that has been in force for 35 years.

The US Navy raised a demand in 2022 to withdraw 39 ships, a plan that was modified due to obstacles raised by the Senate Armed Services Committee, which expressed its refusal to withdraw 13 of those naval units.

One point the US Navy has made regarding the Ticonderoga-class corvettes is that many of the ships have already exceeded their maximum useful lives, requiring increasingly complex and frequent maintenance operations. This situation not only harms the availability of structures, but also requires significant investments, which could be allocated to the construction of new Arleigh Burke Flight III destroyers.

The proposed fiscal 2023 roster includes five Ticonderoga-class corvettes, including USS San Jacinto CG-56. The US Navy intends to withdraw all ships of this category from service within five years, a decision that raised some doubts in legislative bodies about the force’s ability to deploy naval units in case of need. This concern coincides with the growing demand to maintain a naval presence, especially in the Indo-Pacific region.

The cruiser USS San Jacinto was commissioned on 23 January 1988 in Houston, Texas. According to details from the US Navy, the ship carried out a short deployment in support of Operation Desert Shield, serving as the commander of the anti-aircraft combat force in the Red Sea, and firing the first Tomahawk cruise missiles as part of the opening salvoes of the attack. Operation Desert Storm.

Other notable deployments to San Jacinto included direct support of Operations Southern Watch, Inherent Resolve, and Iraqi Freedom; As well as combating terrorism on a large scale. In January 2020, the cruiser deployed as part of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower carrier strike group in the Arabian Sea, breaking the US Navy record for consecutive days at sea with 206 days.

Once deactivated, the USS San Jacinto will be towed to the Navy’s inactive ship maintenance facility in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where it will be placed in Logistics Support Asset (LSA) status. The US Navy still had more than fifteen Ticonderoga-class cruisers, ships with an increasingly low life horizon.

Illustrative cover photo. Credits: US Navy

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