Description
The Ticonderoga class of guided-missile cruisers is a class of warships in the United States Navy, first ordered and authorized in the 1978 fiscal year. The class uses passive phased-array radar and was originally planned as a class of destroyers. However, the increased combat capability offered by the Aegis Combat System and the AN/SPY-1 radar system, together with the capability of operating as a flagship, were used to justify the change of the classification from DDG (guided-missile destroyer) to CG (guided-missile cruiser) shortly before the keels were laid down for Ticonderoga and Yorktown. (Wikipedia)
USS Bunker Hill (CG-52) is a Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser of the United States Navy constructed by Litton-Ingalls Shipbuilding Corporation at Pascagoula, Mississippi and launched on 11 March 1985. The Ticonderoga-class cruisers are equipped with the Aegis Combat System and Bunker Hill is the first of the class to be equipped with the Mark 41 Vertical Launching System (VLS) in place of the previous ships' twin-arm Mark 26 missile launchers, which greatly improved the flexibility and firepower of the ships by allowing them to fire BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles for land attack missions. Other missions include ballistic missile defence and capital ship escort for anti-aircraft defense. The ship was commissioned on 20 September 1986 and is homeported at Naval Base San Diego in San Diego, California.
