The future USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG-125), the first Flight III
Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, finished builder’s trials on Dec. 15, the Navy said on Monday.
Builder’s sea trials include a set of both in-port and at-sea demonstrations a shipbuilder uses to assess a new ship’s systems. Later acceptance trials are conducted for the Navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV).
The Navy said in this case it also marked the first opportunity to test the new Flight III systems while underway.
DDG-125 was built by HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding division [HII] in Pascagoula, Miss. The ship is expected to be homeported in San Diego.
“Embarking on Builder’s Sea Trials is a significant accomplishment for the DDG 51 program. As the first Flight III ship, DDG 125 is the culmination of years of dedication and perseverance to design, build, and integrate the Flight III capability of [baseline 10], [AN/SPY-6(V) Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR)] and the supporting systems such as the new Electric Plant and associated upgrade to the Machinery Control System,” Capt. Seth Miller, DDG-51 class program manager within Program Executive Office (PEO) Ships, said in a statement.
DDG-125 will be the 75th overall Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. As the first Flight III version, the ship was modified, including made larger, to host the SPY-6 AMDR and necessary upgrades to the ship’s electrical power and cooling capacity for it.
The Navy and HII christened DDG-125 in March (Defense Daily, March 25).
HII’s Ingalls shipyard is also under construction on the future USS Ted Stevens (DDG-128), Jeremiah Denton (DDG-129), George M. Neal (DDG-131) and Sam Nunn (DDG-133).
HII splits production on the destroyer with General Dynamics’ Bath Iron Works [GD] in Maine.
These trials were completed shortly after the Navy and HII marked the start of fabrication on DDG-133 (Defense Daily, Dec. 14).