Huntington Ingalls Industries’ [HII] Ingalls Shipbuilding launched the future Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Delbert D. Black (DDG-119) in its Pascagoula, Miss,. facility on Friday, the Navy said.
DDG-119 is being configured in the Flight IIA configuration, which includes an Aegis Combat System for missile defense capabilities.
The Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) noted the launching process takes several days: first a ship is moved from a land-level facility to a dry dock, next it is slowly flooded until the ship floats, then final outfitting and production can start once the ship is in water.
NAVSEA said the Black will incorporate the Raytheon-developed Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC). It is a “sensor netting system” that distributes a set of sensor-derived information to all CEC units
The Navy said the CEC, when combined with Aegis, allows groups of ships and aircraft to link radars to provide a composite picture of the battle space. This increases the theater space, the Navy said.
The Pascagoula shipyard is also building four other destroyers: the future Ralph Johnson (DDG-114), Paul Ignatius (DDG-117), Frank E. Petersen Jr. (DDG-121), and Lenah H. Sutcliffe Higbee (DDG-123). The company is under contract for an additional destroyer, the future Jack H. Lucas (DDG-125), awarded as part of a five-ship multi-year procurement for fiscal years 2013 to 2017.
DDG-125 is set to be the first ship using the Flight III design which notably incorporates the SPY-6 Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) for improved detection and tracking of targets (Defense Daily, June 27).
The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer development and procurement is overseen by NAVSEA’s Program Executive Office (PEO) ships. An official in the office said production of the destroyers is going well.
“Production efforts on our Arleigh Burke class destroyers remain strong. With four DDG 51 class ships currently in the water and in route to delivery, the program is in serial production and leveraging production efficiencies,” Capt. Casey Moton, DDG-51 class program manager at PEO Ships, said in a statement.