During the 1986 Rim Pac naval exercise, she acted as the plane guard for the aircraft carrier USS Ranger. In March 2003, Valley Forge was assigned to Destroyer Squadron 21. The ship was decommissioned on 31 August 2004 at San Diego Naval Station, the first ship with the Aegis combat system withdrawn from service. Valley Forge was sunk on 2 November 2006 as part of a target practice on a test range near Kauai, Hawaii.