The US Navy held ceremonies on September 25 and 30, 2026, to retire guided-missile cruisers USS Lake Erie (CG 70) and USS Shiloh (CG 67), respectively; five Ticonderoga-class cruisers remain in service.
The ceremony for Lake Erie took place at Naval Base San Diego after 33 years of service. Shiloh was decommissioned at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam after 34 years.
The navy said Shiloh will be transferred to the Naval Inactive Ships Maintenance Facility in Bremerton, Washington, as a logistics support asset (LSA). Its April inactivation schedule also designated Lake Erie as an LSA, a category used for parts cannibalisation and equipment removal.
After 11 months at sea in the US Fourth Fleet area of operations, including the Caribbean, Lake Erie finished its operational service in June. The navy said the cruiser undertook missions involving command and control and maritime security in support of the US Southern Command-led Operation Southern Spear.
Commissioned on July 24, 1993, Lake Erie helped develop and test the Aegis ballistic missile defence system. In February 2008, it intercepted a malfunctioning US satellite and destroyed it during Operation Burnt Frost.
Shiloh was commissioned on July 18, 1992, and served in a forward-deployed role in Yokosuka, Japan, for 17 years after arriving in August 2006.
Its service included Tomahawk missile strikes during Operation Desert Strike in 1996 and Operation Iraqi Freedom. The cruiser also supported relief operations after the December 26, 2004, tsunami off Aceh, Indonesia, during Operation Unified Assistance in early 2005.
The remaining cruisers are USS Robert Smalls, USS Princeton, USS Gettysburg, USS Chosin and USS Cape St. George.
The navy extended the service lives of Gettysburg, Chosin and Cape St. George in November 2024, adding 10 cumulative ship-years across fiscal 2026–2029 following hull, machinery and combat-system upgrades.
