General Dynamics [GD] on Thursday said it has successfully completed builder’s trials for the third and final Zumwalt-class destroyer, a key milestone on the way to delivering the large surface combatant to the Navy and allowing its Bath Iron Works (BIW) shipyard to focus on the
Arleigh Burke-class destroyer program.
The five-day trials with the future USS Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG-1002) “successfully demonstrated the operational capabilities of all hull, mechanical and electrical systems,” Edward Kenyon, BIW program manager, said in a statement.
“This is an important day for Bath Iron Works,” Dirk Lesko, president of the Maine-based shipyard, said in a statement. “The success of this trial moves us closer to delivering this ship and returning our focus to increasing the pace of DDG-51 construction.”
GD delivered DDG-1000, the first ship in the class, in April 2020. The second ship, DDG-1001, is slated for delivery in fiscal year 2022 and DDG-1002 is expected to be delivered in January 2024.
The Zumwalt-class ships are designed to perform a range of missions, including power projection, sea control and command and control.
The BIW shipyard is responsible for overall design, construction, integration, testing and delivery of the ship. Raytheon Technologies [RTX] is providing the Total Ship Computing Environment and mission systems.