USS Hué City makes it to US Navy’s cruiser modernization program

Guided missile cruiser USS Hué City (CG 66) was inducted into the US Navy’s cruiser modernization program after 25 years of service.

The ship started a period of major overhaul, that will give her a new lease on life and upgraded Air Defense Commander capabilities, at the Norfolk Naval Base on September 30.

The CG Modernization program paces the threat through the installation of the latest technological advances in combat systems and engineering, ensuring these ships remain relevant and viable throughout their entire service life of 40 operational years. Hué City will undergo extensive structural, mechanical, and combat systems upgrades and return to the fleet at peak technical readiness.

Once a ship is inducted into the modernization program, two smaller maintenance availabilities are performed to remove equipment for replacement and to conduct structural repairs. These smaller availabilities lay the foundation for the ship to receive new and upgraded systems during a longer dry-docking availability.

“This was a tremendous effort between ship’s force, maintenance team, and other stakeholders,” said Lt. Cmdr. Ethan Reber, Hué City’s commanding officer. “From the beginning, lessons learned from ships inducted earlier in the process – Gettysburg (CG 64), Vicksburg (CG 69), and Anzio (CG 68) – were incorporated effectively into our planning. Our crew is ready to get started and work alongside the maintenance teams to deliver on her next milestone.”

Six of 11 cruisers have been inducted into the modernization program and are in various stages of returning to the fleet with modernized warfighting capability.

USS Hué City (CG 66) is the seventh cruiser to be inducted and will be equipped with the latest technological advances in combat systems and engineering to ensure she remains warfighting relevant through the 2030s.