Aegis Modernization

USNI News website reports that the Aegis cruiser Chancellorsville received the first Aegis Baseline 9 modernization upgrade (1).  Apparently, the work occurred in an approximate six month period during the latter half of 2012.  The ship, you’ll recall, was involved in the drone crash during subsequent system testing.

The interesting part of this is that the Navy has claimed to Congress that it needs to put the Aegis cruisers through a four year modernization program in order to upgrade them.  Instead, we see that the major portion of the upgrade, the Aegis Baseline 9, can be performed in six months or less.  To be fair, the Navy undoubtedly had other modernization action items in mind for the four year upgrade but, come on, four years worth of other “stuff”???  Again, to be fair, the Navy has never released a comprehensive list of planned modernization items - I seriously doubt that such a list even exists since the Navy has no intention of ever modernizing the ships.  Further, the astute among you may be wondering how the Navy can perform a mid-life nuclear refueling and comprehensive overhaul of a carrier in less time than a cruiser modernization.  This simply reinforces the suspicion (certainty) that the Navy’s cruiser modernization plan was a thinly veiled attempt to retire the ships prematurely.

(1)USNI News, “Modernized Cruiser Chancellorsville Leaving for New Homeport in Japan”, Megan Eckstein, 28-May-2015

http://news.usni.org/2015/05/28/modernized-cruiser-chancellorsville-leaving-for-new-homeport-in-japan