battle group. During the spring of 1986, California conducted several weeks of Bering Sea operations and became the first cruiser to visit Adak, Alaska, since World War II. She again deployed to the Western Pacific and completed a second "Around-the-World" cruise in 1987. The year 1988 brought continued high-tempo operations as California cruised the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans for a third time. The ship served as battle group Anti-Surface Warfare Commander during the RIMPAC 88 exercise as well as for Olympic Presence Operations off the Korean Peninsula. Subsequently, during her 1988–1989 deployment, California assumed duties as Anti-Air Warfare Commander for operations in the North Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf. While assigned patrol duties in the Strait of Hormuz in December 1988, California conducted the last USN Earnest Will convoy mission through the strait. The summer of 1989 saw California tasked with Northern Pacific operations as part of a CNO project to study the effects of Near-Land Operating Areas on carrier battle group operations. In September and October 1989, California participated as an anti-air-warfare picket ship in PACEX 89, the largest combined sailing of U. S. and allied naval units since World War II. 1990s In April 1990, California entered the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington for a three-year refueling complex overhaul, including two new D2G high endurance reactor cores in her engineering plant with adequate fuel capacity to power the ship for more than 20 years of normal operations, and the New Threat Upgrade Combat Systems Suite. The overhaul cost approximately $425 million. Upon completion of the overhaul in January 1993, California began a series of exercises and evaluations in preparation for deployment. These included independent training in all aspects of its mission as well as coordinated battle group exercises. The timing of this overhaul would prove crucial to the ship's longevity, as it allowed the two California-class cruisers (California and South Carolina) to survive their successor CGNs. Two years later, when the four newer s came up for refueling, the Navy balked at the cost. The Virginia-class cruisers were decommissioned shortly afterwards, while the three-year overhaul on the California-class cruisers improved a platform whose nuclear propulsion system gave it immense flexibility. In June 1994, California joined the battle group in the Western Pacific for the ship's first deployment in five years. California exchanged personnel with the Republic of Korea Navy for a combined exercise and with