USS Thomas S Gates CG-51 Baseball Hat Navy Decommissioned Ticonderoga Class Ship USS Thomas S. Gates on 18 July 2005 History United States Name Thomas S. Gates Namesake Thomas S. Gates Ordered 20 May 1982 Builder Bath Iron Works Laid down 31 August 1984 Launched 14 December 1985 Sponsored by Anne Gates Acquired 22 June 1987 Commissioned 22 August 1987 Decommissioned 16 December 2005 Stricken 16 December 2005 Homeport Norfolk (1987 ? 1998) Pascagoula (1998 ? 2005) Identification Call sign: NTSG Hull number: CG-51 Motto Defender of the Republic Fate Scrapped, 2017 Badge General characteristics Class and type Ticonderoga-class cruiser Displacement Approx. 9,600 long tons (9,800 t) full load Length 567 feet (173 m) Beam 55 feet (16.8 meters) Draught 34 feet (10.2 meters) Propulsion 4 General Electric LM2500 gas turbine engines 2 controllable-reversible pitch propellers 2 rudders Speed 32.5 knots (60 km/h; 37.4 mph) Complement 30 officers and 300 enlisted Sensors and processing systems AN/SPY-1A/B multi-function radar AN/SPS-49 air search radar (Removed on some ships) AN/SPG-62 fire control radar AN/SPS-73 surface search radar AN/SPQ-9 gun fire control radar AN/SQQ-89(V)1/3 - A(V)15 Sonar suite, consisting of: AN/SQS-53B/C/D active sonar AN/SQR-19 TACTAS, AN/SQR-19B ITASS, MFTA passive sonar AN/SQQ-28 light airborne multi-purpose system (Note: No Towed Array Sonar on early Cruisers) Armament 2 Mk 26 missile launchers 68 RIM-66 SM-2 20 RUR-5 ASROC 8 RGM-84 Harpoon missiles 2 5 in (127 mm)/54 caliber Mark 45 lightweight gun 2?4 .50 in (12.7 mm) cal. machine gun 2 Phalanx CIWS 2 Mk 32 12.75 in (324 mm) triple torpedo tubes Aircraft carried 2 Sikorsky SH-60B or MH-60R Seahawk LAMPS III helicopters. The USS Thomas S. Gates (CG-51) was a flight-I Ticonderoga-class cruiser that was used by the United States Navy. The warship was named after Thomas S. Gates, Secretary of Defense in the last years of the Eisenhower Administration (1959?1961). In a break from normal naming conventions for the Ticonderoga class cruisers, the Thomas S. Gates was originally the only vessel of the class to be named after a person; all of the other cruisers are named after notable events in American military history until 2023, when USS Chancellorsville was renamed USS Robert Smalls (CG-62).