You retire something when is outdated in function or you have something better.
If you don't have something better you keep it till you do. I was agreeing with sferrin
I guess I said it wrong.
"Need"? Like the Spruances "needed" to be retired? Like the Virginias and Californias "needed" to be retired?
I feel the need to point out that like all things.
Ships have a finite lifespan.
In the Tico case that is a life of 30 years in use with 5 extra for just incase with refits.
The newest Ticonderoga-class cruiser is the USS Port Royal. She was launched in November of 1992, 29 years ago.
Two others were launched that year with the next being in July of 1991, 30 years go, with the oldest the USS BUnker Hill launched in...
Drum roll please...
1984! 37 years ago!
Most of the CURRENT cruisers are pushing 32-33 years of HARD use. They can not be refit or updated anymore, you basically need to rebuild the hull from the keel up and de-rate their speed to baby them to get maybe another decade out of them if we are luckly. But by doing that you are removing any consideration that hull will hold together in the first heavy storm it hits. Also you are basically paying double in maintaining the hull.
And this will not change if we kept the Spruances and the Nuke boats. Most of the Spruancans where pushing 22-24 when they were retire anyways* and the Nuke Cruisers will have need a refueling by 2015 and still be pushing 40 years old. Ancient for an warship, hell they probably have been retired within the last decade if we kept them. Cause those ships had 35 years of design life themselves as well.
By keeping those ships we will have still be in this position today. WITH OLDER LESS CAPABLE SHIPS MIND YOU!
The cancelation of all those 1990s and 2000s ships, like the CG(X) and the Zumwalt snafu is what fucked todays navy up. Cause by now most of those ships be coming online and replacing the tired Ticos. Thankfully the Burke Spam is usefull, it just limiting with what we can do. We going to need a new design NOW if we want a fleet worth the name...
*It should be pointed out that thanks to the Navy bright idea to have two crews per ship, one for port work and one for deployments, with the deployments crews being toss around different ships, each Spruance class hull age ten years in five. Reason for this was because the Crews just didnt care about taking care of them. They did not see the ships as theirs, so the mindset of let it be the NEXT guy issues was strong. This just lead to the ships being trashed like a five year old rental car, with all that implies. The fact that they lasted for most of their design life is telling that they built solidly. But by the time they were retired, they were scrapped, cracks in the hulls, gear permatelly inop, think of a issue a ship can have and they likely had it sadly. The Navy knew this so retired them when they did, basically didnt have a choice. For Refitting them to new was going to cost as much as the Zumwalts did, and we all know how THAT turns out.