USS Port Royal (CG-73) was a Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser that served in the United States Navy. She was commissioned on 9 July 1994, as the 27th and final ship of the class. Port Royal was named in honor of the two naval battles of Port Royal Sound, South Carolina, one during the American Revolutionary War, the other during the American Civil War. She was decommissioned on 29 September 2022. The ship is the second to bear the name, with the first being a steam-powered, side-wheel gunboat, from New York City, in commission from 1862 to 1866.
USS Port Royal underway in August 2007
USS Port Royal in September 2003
Port Royal aground off Oahu in February 2009
Port Royal in drydock following grounding
Ticonderoga-class cruiser
The Ticonderoga class of guided-missile cruisers is a class of warships of the United States Navy, first ordered and authorized in the 1978 fiscal year. It was originally planned as a class of destroyers. However, the increased combat capability offered by the Aegis Combat System and the passive phased array AN/SPY-1 radar, together with the capability of operating as a flagship, were used to justify the change of the classification from DDG to CG shortly before the keels were laid down for Ticonderoga and Yorktown.
USS Lake Champlain
From left to right: Thomas S. Gates, Ticonderoga, and Yorktown laid up in Philadelphia, May 2016
Bunker Hill (rear) with Lekir of the Royal Malaysian Navy during a passing exercise in the Strait of Malacca
Ticonderoga–class cruisers (right) were built on the same hull as the Spruance-class destroyer (left).