diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/math3/linear/SparseFieldVector.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/math3/linear/SparseFieldVector.java
index c323ebc3e..ab4489d62 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/math3/linear/SparseFieldVector.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/math3/linear/SparseFieldVector.java
@@ -34,7 +34,12 @@ import org.apache.commons.math3.util.OpenIntToFieldHashMap;
  * @param <T> the type of the field elements
  * @version $Id$
  * @since 2.0
+ * @deprecated As of version 3.1, this class is deprecated, for reasons exposed
+ * in this JIRA
+ * <a href="https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/MATH-870">ticket</a>. This
+ * class will be removed in version 4.0.
  */
+@Deprecated
 public class SparseFieldVector<T extends FieldElement<T>> implements FieldVector<T>, Serializable {
     /**  Serialization identifier. */
     private static final long serialVersionUID = 7841233292190413362L;