"Thirty nations, over 30 surface ships, five submarines, 15 national land forces, more than 206 aircraft and 30,000 personnel will train and operate in and around the Hawaiian Islands during the exercise," the Navy said.
RIMPAC 2026 and the SINKEX capstone
RIMPAC 2026, the 30th edition of the Rim of the Pacific biennial exercise, began June 24 and runs through July 31. The Navy describes this iteration as the largest in the history of the exercises. As in past iterations, the sinking exercise — SINKEX — will serve as the capstone event, when surplus vessels are used as live-fire targets to evaluate weapons, tactics and crew performance under realistic conditions.
The ex‑USS Mobile Bay: operational history and final disposition
The decommissioned Ticonderoga‑class guided‑missile cruiser ex‑USS Mobile Bay (CG‑53) is slated to be sunk by friendly forces sometime in the coming weeks during RIMPAC, according to reporting. Mobile Bay was commissioned on Feb. 27, 1987, served 36 years and was decommissioned in 2023. A year after decommissioning she was determined ineligible to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places, sealing her fate as a candidate for SINKEX disposal.
The Navy records cited in the reporting list a number of notable events in Mobile Bay’s operational history: participation in the 1989 evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, launching 22 Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles in support of Operation Desert Storm, assisting the evacuation of thousands displaced by the 1991 Mt. Pinatubo eruption during Operation Fiery Vigil, participation in a U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment seizure of 10.5 metric tons of cocaine roughly 800 miles southwest of Acapulco, and launching Tomahawks in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. Mobile Bay also participated in RIMPAC 2022.
A pair of high‑profile, different targets: ex‑USS Mobile Bay and ex‑USS Peleliu
RIMPAC planners will use two high‑visibility, very different surplus ships in this year’s SINKEX: the Ticonderoga‑class ex‑USS Mobile Bay and the Tarawa‑class amphibious assault ship ex‑USS Peleliu (LHA‑5). The reporting notes that the pair — a guided‑missile cruiser and a large amphibious ship — will make for a uniquely interesting SINKEX, though the precise date and manner of either ship’s sinking have not been released.
SINKEXes are designed to exercise a broad range of weapons and crews. Past target exercises have included strikes by long‑range air‑launched anti‑ship missiles — for example, a U.S. Air Force B‑2A Spirit launched an AGM‑158C Long Range Anti‑Ship Missile (LRASM) at the ex‑USS Juneau during Valiant Shield 2026 — and commonly employ torpedoes, short‑range missiles, rocket artillery and airborne gunfire to stress-test systems and damage assessments.
Other Ticonderoga‑class hulls and the class’ capabilities
Mobile Bay is one of four Ticonderoga cruisers listed in Navy records as slated for SINKEX disposal; the ex‑USS Vella Gulf, the ex‑USS Antietam and the ex‑USS Port Royal are also facing the same fate. The ex‑USS Valley Forge was the first of the decommissioned Ticonderogas to be sunk, during target practice in Hawaii in November 2006.
The Ticonderoga class carries Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles and serves as an air‑and‑missile‑defense battery and command‑and‑control platform. These cruisers are equipped with Harpoon anti‑ship missiles and MH‑60R Sea Hawk helicopters, and execute anti‑submarine warfare operations. Built in the 1980s and early 1990s, the class primarily provided the backbone of a carrier strike group’s air warfare capabilities. According to the reporting, nine ships in the class remain in service; roughly half a dozen are slated for decommissioning in the coming years, while USS Gettysburg, USS Chosin and USS Cape St. George have been modernized or are near finishing modernization and will remain in service toward the end of the decade.
How the Navy, RIMPAC participants, and weapons crews are using this SINKEX
- The Navy: will dispose of surplus hulls while using live‑fire events to validate tactics, weapons effects and damage assessment procedures on large, representative targets.
- RIMPAC participants and allied forces: will train and operate together in an exercise that the Navy characterizes as fostering cooperative relationships critical to securing sea lanes and regional stability across the Pacific.
- Weapons crews and units: gain real‑world practice employing a variety of ordnance against full‑scale hulls, from long‑range anti‑ship missiles to torpedoes and close‑in fires, enabling assessment of both systems and human performance under test conditions.
It remains unclear which weapons will be used against the ex‑USS Mobile Bay or the ex‑USS Peleliu, and the date of their sinkings has not been published. "It will be interesting to see how the ex‑Mobile Bay is ultimately disposed of. We will provide an update when more information is available," the reporting concludes.
Source: TWZ — Ticonderoga Class Cruiser Set To Be Sunk During RIMPAC Wargames
