On my recent trip through the Atlanta Airport to visit Glock and canoodle with the new Gen6s, I spied a display of hand-carved wooden scale models, all of WWII-era aircraft.
One caught my eye, that of a Grumman J2F-4 Duck amphibian in bright pre-war livery, complete with “meatball” roundels.
(Photos: Chris Eger)
Yup, it was I-J-7, the famous “Candy Clipper,” complete with candy cane markings on its cowlings.
The Clipper was part of Navy LT Jack Clayton Renard’s Utility Squadron of PATWING10, a group of 10 light single-engine seaplanes operating out of the area around Manila: four J2F-2/4 Ducks, five early OS2U-2 Kingfishers, and one SOC-1 Seagull.
The “Candy Clipper” moniker came from its Navy pilot’s side-quest of carrying candy to nurses on Corregidor to brighten the Christmas of 1941, along with shuttling medical supplies and food to the bunker.
By late January 1942, all of Renard’s light amphibians had been lost to the fighting or were otherwise written off, and the Navy personnel diverted to ground defense as the war for Manila was lost.
A USAAF 1st Lieutenant, Roland J. Barnick (O-2820), was tapped to take the battered old Clipper, which had its shot-through engine recently replaced with one from a sunken J2F, on the last flight out of Bataan before the Japanese surrender on 9 April 1942.
Built for a crew of two (three in a pinch), the Clipper was crammed with Barnick and five high-value passengers, including Army Major (later general and UN President) Carlos P. Romulo, who went on to write about the flight in his best-selling book, I Saw the Fall of the Philippines.
The abused Clipper, overloaded and running on a waterlogged salvaged engine, somehow made it from its hiding place at Cabcaben airfield to friendly lines in Mindanao, where it would remain as its passengers managed their way by assorted means to Java and Australia.
Barnick, a bomber man, would end the war leading B-29 Superforts over the Japanese Home Islands.
At a time when the USN’s big deck ‘phib force is perhaps at its smallest size in terms of number of hulls in the water since 1940, the Medium Landing Ship has officially been announced by the SECNAV.
As many as 35 are wanted by the Marines, although you can be sure that will likely be trimmed to 23-24 (the Marines have only two missile-slinging Marine Littoral Regiments stood up, rather than the three planned, the whole reason for the LSM to exist).
The winner is Damen’s Landing Ship Transport (LST) 100 design, with the “100” being its length in meters. A small ship, measuring 321 feet with a 1,400 dwt (4,000 tons full load) displacement, it is capable of 15 knots while carrying a 1,020 m² RoRo deck, featuring a helicopter pad and space for small boats. Crew size is just 18 men– which means 40 overseen by an O-5 in Big Navy parlance.
They can essentially land a vehicle-based company-sized force, which sets up the interesting scenario of, say, an LSM, LCS, and an older DDG, operating as a sort of “pocket MEU” for non-combat operations other than all-out war (evacs, humanitarian support, exercises, constabulary, etc) — freeing up regular MEUs for more muscular use.
“The U.S. Navy has selected the LST 100 design for the Medium Landing Ship (LSM) program, enabling rapid fielding of this urgently needed capability to our Navy and U.S. Marine Corps team. By leveraging a mature, non-developmental design and strategic engineering, we are shortening acquisition timelines and ensuring our forces have the littoral mobility they need when they need it.”
As Damen is a proven designer and its successive series of 110, 87, and 154-foot patrol boats, built by Bollinger in Louisiana, have been the background of the USCG since the 1980s, with more than 180 delivered. That puts Bollinger immediately in the hunt, and, as the LSM is a simple design, you can bet some commercial firms and also-runs will also try to get in on the build.
It is (almost) always more efficient and effective to buy an existing product off the shelf than to develop one to fit your exact needs. NAVSEA has found that out painfully with the LCS program and the Zumwalt-class Megadestroyers.
Even when buying an existing design, such as done ostensibly with the now-abandoned Constellation-class frigates, NAVSEA has learned that it cannot totally change every compartment of the design, add dozens of new ones, and start construction before this total redesign is even finished.
Off the shelf means little to no changes. Hopefully, NAVSEA has seen the light.
A return to LST normal?
USCG-manned USS LST 66 headed for a hot beach at Balikpapan. Commissioned on 12 April 1943, LST-66 was on her 12 series of landings after hitting the beach with Marines and soldiers at Cape Gloucester, Saidor, Hollandia, Toem-Wakde-Sarmi, Biak, Noemfoor, Cape Sansapor, Morotai, Leyte, Lingayen, and Mindanao, earning eight battle stars. NARA 26-G-4741
Going back to the days of the Overlord, Detachment, and Iceberg landings of 1944-45, the Navy relied on LSTs to get to the beach with an early generation of LSDs/APDs just offshore running small boats to and from troop-laden transports.
This formula continued well into the Carter era, even giving a nod to vertical envelopment as early as Operation Swift Winds in South Vietnam in 1965, using amphibious assault ships like the USS Iwo Jima (LPH-2) to rapidly insert Marines via helicopter. Meanwhile, starting in 1962 with the 14,000-ton USS Raleigh (LPD-1), assault transport docks began to appear, with the ability to carry both landing craft and helicopters.
In 1968, the Navy had 7 Iwo Jima-class 18,000-ton helicopter carriers built or on the schedule, 16 Raleigh and Cleveland class LPDs, 33 LSDs of the Anchorage, Cabildo, and Ashland class as well as the 27 Newport and Suffolk class LSTs plus 99 (!) older LST-1156 (Terribone Parish), LST-511 (Caddo Parish), and LST-1 (Blanco) series gators. This was also bolstered by 20 Attack Transports (APAs) and 23 Attack Cargo Ships (AKAs).
No matter how you slice it, that was well over 200 amphibious warfare ships.
The prospect of owning the beachhead was still very real at the time, with the Navy having lists of shallow draft DERs, DEs, PGs, and even 11 LSMRs– 1,100-ton landing ships that had been fitted to fire 240 5-inch rocket salvos at a time.
Then came the building of the big deck 40,000+ ton LHAs and LHDs, starting with USS Tarawa in 1976, and increasingly larger LPDs and LSDs, able to push the landing ships further over-the-horizon and out to sea– safely away from things like Silkworm missiles, fast attack craft hiding in the shallows, and 155mm howitzers on the beach.
Artist’s conception of a very preliminary design of the LHA, released by DoD, 15 February 1967. USN 1120262
This meant the end of the APAs and AKAs, as the bigger LHA/LHDs, LPDs, and LSDs could carry more men and cargo, and the outright termination of the LST, with still-useful Newport class vessels divested at the end of the Cold War (and quickly snapped up by Allied countries, with four of them still active in their 50s). Also gone were the “small boy” escorts that could get in close to the beach with 5-inch guns, as clearly they would not be needed.
By 2003, the Navy was down to just five LHAs, seven LHDs, 12 LSDs, and 12 LPDs (a 13th as a flagship), the mystical 36-ship package allowing 12 amphibious ready groups, each with a big deck LHA/LHD, an LPD, and an LSD, capable of toting around a reinforced Marine battalion with its integrated aviation and support elements (the MEU).
Current figures today are 9 LHD/LHAs, 10 LSDs, and 13 LPDs: 32 hulls, just one more than the Congress-mandated minimum of 31 ships. But that is subjective as the worn-out LSDs are retiring, and incoming LPD numbers are not sufficient to replace them on a hull-for-hull basis.
Worse, there is no, um, expendable, landing ship to put the Marine Littoral Regiment on the beach, which is the stated need for the LSM (we can’t call them full-fledged LSTs now, can we?).
We all know that the LSM will be pressed into other service outside of schlepping MLRs around the Chinese littoral, especially when viewed on their 20-30 year lifespan. Hopefully, it will not come at the expense of the big hull gators, or we will be right back to 1944-45 again, but at a time when the littoral has never been more dangerous, or when we have less control of it.
Via the USAMU, Fort Benning- December 2025- Attention all U.S. Army Soldiers! Registration is now open for the 2026 U.S. Army Small Arms Championships at Fort Benning, Georgia, March 8-14.
The US Army Small Arms Championship (All Army) is an advanced combat live-fire training event. Training and skill exercises apply to all military small arms firing disciplines.
This event is only open to Active Army, Army Reserves, U.S. Army or Air National Guard, Military Academy, College ROTC Cadets, and OCS Candidates. Civilians and military personnel from other services are prohibited from participating in any event.
All competitors must register as individuals for this event. Please ensure that you fill out all of the information on the registration form.
USAMU will not be providing weapons or equipment to competitors. This is the responsibility of the unit sending the Soldier to the event. The Match Program can be found in the upper-right corner. We have made changes to the match program. Please ensure that you download the match program.
Sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN-68) render honors as the ship passes the USS Arizona Memorial while arriving at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, 29 November 2025. The Nimitz made the scheduled port visit while operating in the U.S. 3rd Fleet area of operations during an eight-month deployment as the flagship of Carrier Strike Group 11.
Credit: Navy Seaman Matthew C. Wolf. VIRIN: 251129-N-AW546-1141P
U.S. Navy sailors man the rails on the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) while pulling into Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Nov. 29, 2025. Nimitz is underway in the U.S. 3rd Fleet area of operations on a scheduled deployment, demonstrating the U.S. Navy’s unwavering commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jaron Wills)
The photo is appropriate as ADM Chester Nimitz, the supercarrier’s namesake, was dispatched to Pearl Harbor to assume command of the Pacific Fleet just nine days after Arizona went down, and would assume command of the seriously damaged and demoralized force in a ceremony aboard the submarine USS Grayling (SS-209) on 31 December 1941, as no battlewagons were availible since all eight dreadnoughts in the Harbor were sunk or severely damaged.
The carrier was christened on 13 May 1972 by Catherine Nimitz Lay, the daughter of the late admiral.
This is likely CVN-68’s final trip past Battleship Row, as she is scheduled to begin deactivation in early 2026, capping a 51-year career.
Her first port call at Pearl was back during RIMPAC 1988– as OPFOR against the USS Missouri Battleship Battle Group, no less– and she has been back at least 11 times since then.
And, of course, she will live on as Pearl Harbor’s strongest yet unsuccessful defender, ala 1980s The Final Countdown.
The Navy granted access to Nimtz during production of the movie, so when you see those stunning shots of the “Big 6-8 haze gray and underway,” it is not stock footage.
Some 250 years ago this week, on 3 December 1775, the 30-gunned three-masted Continental ship Alfredwas commissioned in Philadelphia, marking the first time the Grand Union Flag– a combination of the British Flag and 13 stripes representing the thirteen Colonies– was raised over an American naval vessel.
Continental Ship Alfred (1775-1778) Painting in oils by W. Nowland Van Powell, depicting Lieutenant John Paul Jones raising the Grand Union flag as Alfred was placed in commission at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 3 December 1775. Commanded by Captain Dudley Saltonstall, Alfred was the flagship of Commodore Esek Hopkins’ Continental Navy flotilla during the remainder of 1775 and the first four months of 1776. Courtesy of the U.S. Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C. Donation of the Memphis Council, U.S. Navy League, 1776. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 85212-KN
The ship, originally named Black Prince, was built at Philadelphia in 1774 and acquired by the Continental Congress in November 1775. Renamed Alfred, she had the newly minted Continental Navy LT John Paul Jones, a Scot, hoist the Grand Union Flag during the commissioning ceremony.
A Grand Union Flag, circa 1775-1776, displayed in 1926. USN 900248
The ship was outfitted with numerous small guns: 20 9-pounder smooth-bore cannon and 10 6-pounder smooth-bore cannon, and served admirably and against all odds until 9 March 1778, when, under the command of Elisha Hinsman near Barbados, she encountered the faster British warships Ariadne and Ceres and was captured, then ignobly pressed into service with the Crown.
By that time, John Paul Jones had moved on to his own command and was noted as writing, “I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast, for I intend to go in harm’s way.”
Littoral Combat Ship 31, the future USS Cleveland, was delivered to the Navy on 26 November from Fincantieri Marinette Marine in Wisconsin, closing out the line.
While all 19 of the more successful Indianapolis-class variants have been delivered and commissioned (albeit with two early hulls laid up), and are increasingly being used in a minesweeper role, the 16 Freedom-class variants, of which Cleveland is the final hull, have been much less successful, and five of her sisters have already been retired.
Clevelandlaunched in April 2023 and has spent the past 31 monthsfitting out. By comparison, the last Indy, USS Pierre (LCS-38), only needed 14 months between christening (18 May 2024) and delivery (11 July 2025). Pierre’s entire construction period, from keel laying to commissioning, spanned 29 months.
Following commissioning in Cleveland, Ohio, in early 2026, LCS 31 will be homeported in Mayport, Florida, with her 10 active sisters.
When commissioned, LCS-31 will be the fourth U.S. Navy vessel named for the Ohio city after two cruisers (C-19/CL-21 and CL-55), which served in WWI and WWII, respectively, and LPD-7, a Cold War era amphibious transport dock commissioned in 1967 and disposed of in a 2024 SINKEX.
Fincantieri, meanwhile, is continuing to work on the first (and last) two hopelessly behind Constellation class frigates, while the other four on contract will be canceled.
The Navy has agreed to take the blame for the program’s mismanagement, even going so far as to indemnify Fincantieri while the shipyard “is expected to receive new orders to deliver classes of vessels in segments that best serve the immediate interests of the nation and the renaissance of U.S. shipbuilding, such as amphibious, icebreaking, and other special missions.”
Wow.
Buy ROK FFGs?
Perhaps we should just order some frigates off the shelf from Korea, where the third Chungnam-class (FFX) Batch-III frigate, the future ROKS Jeonnam (FFG-831), was launched at SK Ocean Plant in Goseong, Gyeongnam, on 25 November.
Small, 3,600-ton (4,300 full load) ships that run 423 feet oal, they run a CODAG setup that allows a 30 knot speed and 8,000nm range at 16 knots– ideal for convoy and patrol work. They run a phased-array four-sided AESA radar/IRST mast, carry a 5″/62 MK45 gun, have a VLS (64 K-SAAM, 8 land attack) system, all the ASW goodies (hull-mounted active sonar, towed passive, VLA, 324mm tubes), a hangar for an embarked helicopter, and a CIWS.
Why can’t we have nice things?
Jeonnam’s sister, the ROKS Gyeoungbuk (FFG-829), gives a better view of the class. If we could just whistle up 40 of these. Bulk contract. Single source. Roll it!
The Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Boxer (LHD 4) conducts flight operations while the ship transits the Tsushima Strait, Sept. 18, 2024. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class James Finney)
In case you missed it, Gen. Eric Smith, the 39th Commandant of the Marine Corps, recently came out and publicly reiterated that the Corps has to maintain three deployed Marine Expeditionary Units aboard Navy afloat Amphibious Ready Groups— the classic ARG/MEU combo — for sustained deterrence and global response.
Which is refreshing.
The Corps’ North Star must remain a steady 3.0 ARG/MEU presence: three continuous, three-amphibious warship formations forward deployed—one from the East Coast, one from the West, and one patrolling from Okinawa, Japan. (If you ask our combatant commanders what they need, the answer isn’t a total of three ARG/MEUs; it’s closer to five or six.) 3.0 is the minimum required to provide our nation and the Joint Force with a capability that can serve as both a warfighting formation and a cross-service integrator. It’s what keeps pressure on our adversaries, supports the maritime fight, and gives combatant commanders and national decision makers scalable options they can employ without delay to buy time, create decision-space, and if required to do so, be first to fight.
Seven standing MEUs routinely deploy.
They include the CONUS-based 11th, 13th, and 15th MEUs on the West Coast (of I Marine Expeditionary Force/1st Marine Division based at Camps Pendleton/29 Palms).
And the 22d, 24th, and 26th MEUs on the East Coast (of the II MEF/2nd Marine Division based at Camp Lejeune).
The 31st MEU is forward assigned and located in Okinawa, part of the III MEF/3rd MarDiv.
The problem is that, while the Marines may have seven MEUs and three divisions on paper, they only have 19 active duty infantry battalions, grouped in five full-strength (3 bn) and two understrength (2 bn) regiments, to flesh them out. Each of the regiments has its own HHC and logistics battalion.
Pendleton/29 Palms has 11 infantry battalions: the three battalion-strong 1st, 5th, and 7th Marine Regiments, as well as 2nd Bn/4th Marines, and 3/4th. Lejeune has eight infantry battalions: the full three-battalion 2nd and 6th Marine Regiments, along with 1/8th and 2/8th. The reason why Pendleton has three more battalions than Lejeune is that they forward deploy three battalions rotationally to III MEF/3rd MarDiv to Okinawa/Darwin, Australia (one of which forms the 31st MEU).
III MEF/3rd MarDiv also includes the Corps’ two 1,800-man MLRs: 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment (formerly the historic 3rd Marine Regiment, from 1914 through 2022) and the 12th Marine Littoral Regiment (formerly the 12th Marine Regiment, from 1927-45 & 1952-2023). These missile-armed Westpac Marines will be the so-called “Stand in Force” designed to give the Chinese navy heartburn from remote forward locations.
U.S. Marines and Sailors with 3d Littoral Combat Team, 3d Marine Littoral Regiment, 3d Marine Division, pose for a unit photo before a ceremony on Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Nov. 26, 2024. At the ceremony, 3d Marine Littoral Regiment, 3d Marine Division officially received the Navy/Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System from Marine Corps Systems Command, becoming the first U.S. Marine Corps unit to field the system. The NMESIS provides 3d MLR with enhanced sea denial capabilities and maritime lethality. (U.S. Marine Corps photo illustration by Sgt. Jacqueline C. Parsons) (This image was created using photo merging techniques.)
Plus, each of the three active MarDivs has a dedicated HQ, Recon, LAV, Landing Support, Supply, Transportation Support, Medical, and Dental battalions, as well as fires, amtrac, and engineer units.
So, with three deployed MEUs, basic 1:3 workup logic (one deployed, three recovering/rebuilding/working up) would make it obvious that the Marines need at least 12 infantry battalions to support them. The five “extra” battalions leave a slim elasticity for fly-out operations and reinforcement. Gratefully, the 4th Marine Regiment, which was scheduled to be reorganized into the 4th MLR in 2027, will stay infantry, “preserving its core mission while preparing to respond to potential crisis and conflict.”
The October Force Design update from the Commandant noted, “We determined through the Campaign of Learning that two MLRs and one reinforced Marine Infantry Regiment in III MEF is the optimal force composition to meet III MEF’s missions and objectives.”
Bottom line meant that turning the 4th Marines into 4th MLR would have made the 31st MEU untenable.
So it’s a good sign that Force Design 2030 is holding at two rather than three MLRs, as it at least preserves the ability to put 3 MEUs in play around the world while having a modicum of reserve infantry battalions on hand.
Now, as far as the ARG part of the equation, each MEU is built around three ships (LHA/LHD and two LSD/LPDs), which means that, on a 36-month 1:2 workup/availability basis, the Navy would need to have a theoretical 9 LHD/LHAs and 27 LSD/LPDs (36 hulls) to keep the necessary 3.0 MEUs at sea. Actual figures are 9 LHD/LHAs, 10 LSDs, and 13 LPDs: 32 hulls, just one more than the Congress-mandated minimum of 31 ships.
The Navy has an up with Forward Deployed Naval Forces Japan (FDNF-J), which has three ‘phibs in Sasebo: USS San Diego (LPD 22), New Orleans (LPD 18), and Rushmore (LSD 47), that deploy with 31st MEU, typically underway for 2-3 months, in port for 2-3 months, and then out to sea for again for another 2-3 months, etc. But that still leaves them on the hook for the East and West Coast ARGs, and (6 working LHA/LHDs and 18 LPD/LSDs), however, with those hulls having something like a 50 percent availability for ships in “satisfactory” material condition, that’s a problem.
Worse, the LSDs are retiring, and incoming LPD numbers are not sufficient to replace them on a hull-for-hull basis.
Sure, the Navy is working on bumping up those numbers, but it is still an issue, and one that will get worse before it gets better.
Further, as any potential maintenance issue with the FDNF-J’s phibs could leave the 31st MEU hanging, Commandant Smith is asking the Navy to stage fivegators from Sasebo to ensure three are ready to deploy at the drop of a hat or already underway. Yes, that would give 31st MEU some insurance, but it would have to come at the price of those other two deployed MEU/ARG combos.
Plus, while the Marines have two MLRs standing up, the Navy still doesn’t have the sealift to carry them to short, so there’s that.
The mothballed Iowa-class fast battleship USS New Jersey (BB-62)is towed up the East River under the Brooklyn Bridge to the New York Navy Yard, 22 November 1950, for reactivation as a fire support platform for use in the Korean War.
She had been recommissioned at Bayonne the day before.
She would be refitted with SK-2 search radar, MK 12/22 radar on her MK 37 directors, and retained her 20mm Oerlikons, although most of her 40mm Bofors are gone
USS New Jersey (BB-62) commissioning at Bayonne, 21 November 1950, for Korean War reactivation
Already the recipient of nine battle stars for her WWII service, New Jersey had been decommissioned at Bayonne on 30 June 1948, so her hull had only languished on “red lead row” for 28 months and, notably, was still a very young ship, having been commissioned the first time at Philadelphia on 23 May 1943.
After a quick refit and shakedown, New Jersey left for the Seventh Fleet, where she arrived off the east coast of Korea on 17 May 1951 and spent the next seven months as fleet flagship. The recalled battleship’s big guns opened the first shore bombardment of her Korean career at Wonsan just two days later.
Over the next two years, she would pick up another four battlestars.
The battleship New Jersey (BB-62) fires a full nine-gun salvo of her 16″ rifles at a target in Kaesong, Korea, on 1 January 1953. Official USN photograph # 80-G-433953 in the collection of the National Archives,
USS New Jersey (BB-62) fires a nine 16-inch gun salvo during bombardment operations against enemy targets in Korea, adjacent to the 38th parallel. The photo is dated 10 November 1951. Smoke from shell explosions is visible ashore, in the upper left. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-435681
As noted by DANFS:
During her two tours of duty in Korean waters, she was again and again to play the part of seaborne mobile artillery. In direct support to United Nations troops, or in preparation for ground actions, in interdicting Communist supply and communication routes, or in destroying supplies and troop positions, New Jersey hurled a weight of steel fire far beyond the capacity of land artillery, moved rapidly and free from major attack from one target to another, and at the same time could be immediately available to guard aircraft carriers should they require her protection.
New Jersey would be decommissioned a second time on 21 August 1957, was brought back in 1968 to rain 6,000 shells on NVA positions in Vietnam, then decommissioned a third time the next year, and brought back a fourth and final time in 1982.
The fifth (completed) U.S. Navy vessel named for the Bay State, the future USS Massachusetts (SSN 798), was delivered to the service from Newport News on 21 November. She is the 25th Virginia/774-class submarine, the 12th delivered by the yard, and the seventh of 10 planned Block IV configured boats. Her commissioning is set for 2026.
Future USS Massachusetts (SSN 798) on builder’s acceptance trials. 251008-N-MQ094-002
Future USS Massachusetts (SSN 798) on builder’s acceptance trials. 251008-N-MQ094-001
Future USS Massachusetts (SSN 798) on builder’s acceptance trials. 251008-N-MQ094-003
The first USS Massachusettswas a 4-gun screw steamer built in 1845 and fought during the Mexican-American War.
The second, a 6-gunned screw steamer, fought in the Civil War– the bane of the Confederates on the Mississippi Coast and still has a fort named after her on Ship Island– while the third, an Indiana-class battleship (BB-2), fought in the Spanish-American War.
The last and most famous USS Massachusetts (BB-59) was commissioned in 1942 as a South Dakota-class fast battleship, earning 11 battle stars for exceptional service in WWII from Casablanca to Okinawa before being decommissioned in 1947. She remained in the Reserve Fleet until stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in June 1962 and continues to serve as a floating museum.
USS Massachusetts underway somewhere in the Pacific (1943)
She is the 73rd of her class, the next to last Flight IIA Burke, and one of nine so-called “Technology Insertion” vessels, which have some of the Flight III sensors and mods, such as the new AN/SPQ-9B search and fire control radar instead of the older AN/SPS-67, which was first fielded in 1983.
She also notably is still carrying a CIWS aft rather than a 21-cell RAM launcher, and her forward of the bridge CIWS spot is empty, which means she may be picking up a laser there, be it ODIN, which is on four ships already, or the HELIOS system.
The ship is the first named after retired Marine Col. Harvey Curtiss “Barney” Barnum Jr, a Medal of Honor recipient recognized for his extraordinary heroism and valor during the Vietnam War.
Bath has seven future Burkes under construction: Patrick Gallagher (DDG 127)— the last Flight IIA– and six Flight IIIs: Louis H. Wilson Jr. (DDG 126), William Charette (DDG 130), Quentin Walsh (DDG 132), John E. Kilmer (DDG 134), Richard G. Lugar (DDG 136), and J. William Middendorf (DDG 138).
