"Ticonderoga" entered service in 1983 and deployed later that year to the Mediterranean. Over her first ten years of service, "Ticonderoga" deployed multiple times to the Mediterranean, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans and the Persian Gulf. During Operation Desert Storm, she was attached to Battle Force Zulu and served as Arabian Gulf Track Coordinator. Although she was built with a 35 year service life, the limited missile capacity of "Ticonderoga's" twin Mark 26 missile launch systems rendered her obsolete by the end of the Cold War. As a result "Ticonderoga" adopted a primary mission of counternarcotics in the 1990s and 2000s and made multiple patrols of the Caribbean in that role.