US Defense's video: The backbone of the Navy s defense This is the Navy s multi-role battleship No One Can Replace

The backbone of the Navy's defense This is the Navy's multi-role battleship No One Can Replace. The U.S. Navy's Ticonderoga-class cruisers, built during the 1980s, are nearing retirement age and there is nothing to replace them with. A backbone of the Navy's air defenses, the tall guided-missile cruisers' retirement would leave a hole in the Navy's ability to defend aircraft carriers and other high profile ships just as the service is shifting back to a focus on fleet versus fleet warfare. USS Ticonderoga, the first ship in the class, was commissioned in 1983. Built around the then-new Aegis Combat System and a pair of twin Mk. 26 guided missile launchers, the Ticonderoga cruisers were designed to protect carrier battle groups from incoming swarms of Soviet anti-ship missiles. The sixth ship of the class, USS Bunker Hill, traded the missile launchers for 122 vertical launch missile silos. All in all, 27 were built.