USS Philippine Sea (CG-58)

USS Philippine Sea (CG-58): Named for the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot

Commissioned on 18 March 1989, USS Philippine Sea was named for the Battle of the Philippine Sea on 19 to 20 June 1944, the largest carrier battle in history and the engagement that destroyed Japanese naval aviation permanently. American pilots called it the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot. In two days of combat, Japanese carrier aircraft attacked the American task force in three separate waves and lost approximately 350 aircraft against fewer than 30 American losses. Three Japanese carriers were also sunk. Japan's ability to mount carrier aviation offensively never recovered.

The name on Philippine Sea's bow represented the moment American carrier aviation established a permanent superiority it never relinquished. Putting that name on an Aegis cruiser , the ship whose primary mission was to protect the carriers that had inherited that legacy , was historically intentional.

Philippine Sea became one of the most operationally active Ticonderoga-class ships in the fleet. She fired Tomahawk cruise missiles in Operation Desert Fox against Iraq in 1998, in Operation Allied Force against Yugoslav targets in 1999, and in the opening strikes of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. Multiple conflicts, multiple Tomahawk engagements, sustained combat relevance across more than a decade of American military operations in the Middle East and Europe.

She remained active into the 2010s and 2020s, one of the longer-serving hulls in the class and among the most combat-tested.

Tactically Acquired's USS Philippine Sea (CG-58) collection honors the battle that broke Japanese carrier aviation and the crew that carried that name into three separate wars.