At the end of March, the third destroyer of the third construction batch of the Arleigh Burke class (Flight III) was christened "Jeremiah Denton" (DDG 129) at Huntington Ingalls (Newport News Shipbuilding) - in memory of a Navy Cross-winning veteran of the Vietnam War, who later also served as a senator from the US state of Alabama in...
According to a US Department of Defense announcement dated 30 May 2025, Raytheon Missiles and Defense has been awarded an initial $536.75 million contract (N00024-25-C-5501) for integration and production support services for the AN/SPY-6(V) multifunction wide-area radar. The announcement states that if all options are exercised, the cumulative value of the contract will exceed $2.88 billion.
At the end of October, the US Navy announced that it would be extending the service life of twelve of the oldest Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. They belong to the first generation of this ship class, the Flight I, and were commissioned between 1992 and 1997. The ships were originally designed for a service life of 35 years....
Another American guided missile destroyer is stationed in Rota, Spain. This further increases the importance of the location. The US Navy is increasing its permanent stationing presence in Europe from the current four to six Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers. Washington and Madrid already agreed in the summer of 2022 on the fundamental reinforcement of the...
London - The UK has moved a step closer to the military use of lasers after successfully trialling its new laser project. The UK Ministry of Defence announced that the "DragonFire" energy system has shot down several drones with laser beams while flying off the coast of Scotland for the first time. Joint project The...
Spain's government has given the green light for the stationing of two more US Navy ships, bringing the number of US destroyers stationed in Rota to six. In 2014, the USA began stationing a total of four Arleigh Burke-class destroyers (DDG 51-119, max. 9700 tonnes displacement) permanently in Europe. The order for these...
USA - The future JACK H. LUCAS, America's newest ARLEIGH-BURKE class destroyer, completed its acceptance trials before the Board of Inspection and Survey at the end of May. The LUCAS is the first unit of the third batch of this ship class, which has been built for 35 years. She has been repeatedly equipped with the latest systems and is...
Production of the Arleigh Burke class continues to run at full speed in the USA. Last week, Huntington Ingalls Shipbuilding successfully completed the shipyard sea trials of the latest ship in the class, the future USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. As part of a three-day final inspection in the Gulf of Mexico, the ship's...
Last weekend, the future USS Carl M. Levin was handed over to her future element at Bath Iron Works. It was quietly docked in the Kennebec River, a good 100 kilometres north of Boston. The 9300-tonne destroyer is now being fitted out ready to be commissioned as the 70th ship of the Arleigh Burke class of...