Back in 2015, the guided-missile cruiser Gettysburg began a lengthy modernization process that was supposed to enable the warship’s service life to be extended into the 2030s, Defense News reports. The congressionally mandated effort would go on to include six other Ticonderoga-class cruisers in the following years, a move that sought to maintain the Navy’s surface fires and air defense capabilities even after the warships’ standard 35-year service life came to an end.
