Tag Archives: Flight III Burke

Warship Comings and Goings

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The past week has been a very busy one when it comes to new warships coming online and old ones getting the (sometimes hard) goodbye.

Comings

The future Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Ted Stevens (DDG 128), equipped with the new-to-the-fleet AN/SPY-6 (V)1 radar and Aegis Baseline 10 Combat System, recently completed her builder’s sea trials. 

Stevens will be commissioned in Alaska in May or June 2026 as she honors the former senator from that state.

Ingalls delivered the first Flight III, USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125), in June 2023 and has five others under construction. In all seriousness, these should probably be re-classified as Lucas-class cruisers (CG) as they are stepping into the AAW boss role in carrier battle groups left vacant by the retirement of the Ticonderogas.

Speaking of Flight III Burkes, the future USS Louis H. Wilson Jr (DDG 126) was christened on Bath Iron Works’ drydock over the weekend.

She was sponsored and christened by the daughter of Mississippi-born General Louis H. Wilson Jr., USMC, who served as the Twenty-Sixth Commandant of the Marine Corps during its immediate post-Vietnam rebuilding process. Wilson was no slouch when it came to valor, having earned a MoH while leading a rifle company of the Ninth Marines on Guam in 1944 at the ripe old age of 24.

When it comes to another storied WWII vet, the 82-year-old Gato-class fleet boat USS Cobia (SS-245) is looking great after a dry docking at Fincantieri shipyard. Among other things, she has blasted, primed, and coated with 1,945 gallons of paint, and her sea chests have been cleared of mussels and blanked off with metal plates. A leak was also found in main ballast tank 2, which was drained, cleaned, and repaired.

Her $1.5 million refresh is scheduled to take six weeks and keep her ship-shape for another 25 years, after which she will go back on display at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc around mid-October.

Cobia was last dry-docked in the fall of 1996, which tracks.

Goings

The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea (CG 58) was officially decommissioned during a ceremony onboard Naval Station Norfolk on Sept. 25, 2025. Commissioned in 1989, she has given 36 years of hard service and is the second U.S. Navy warship to carry the name.

Now, only seven of the 27 Ticos are still in active service, with another 15, all decommissioned since 2022, nominally in the Reserve Fleet. Five earlier non-VLS Ticos have all been disposed of.

Finally, the retired Norwegian Olso-class (modified Dealy class DEs) frigate KNM Bergen (F301) was disposed of in a sinkex off the coast of her homeland last month.

There is some confusion over whether she was sunk by a torpedo from the Ula-class submarine KNM Uthaug (S 304) or a Quickstrike delivered by a visiting USAF B-2. As some of the photos released by the Norwegian Navy are clearly taken via periscope, it may be a combination of the two.

It is known that a visiting B-2A “Spirit of Indiana” (82-1069), accompanied by a Royal Norwegian Air Force F-35A Lightning II and P-8A Poseidon aircraft, did use a 2,000-pound class GBU-31 JDAM (Quicksink variant) against “a maritime target” off Andøya in the Norwegian Sea, on 3 September, so this may have been against ex-Bergen.

Either way, it was a dramatic end to the 2,000-ton frigate, which served faithfully on the front lines of the Cold War from 1967 to 2005.

Bulk Buying Burkes

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No less than 6 Spruance class destroyers on the way. DD Module Erection Area 24 June 1976. Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Mississippi.

I always thought the big bulk buys of the 1970s and 1980s, such as ordering the whole 31-ship Spruance class from Ingalls all at once, was a good idea. It allows the yard to forecast workloads far enough out to literally “grow” craftspeople through apprentice programs, saves time, saves money, win-win for all involved. That’s how you win a Cold War.

Well, the Pentagon just whistled up nine advanced Flight III DDG-51s this week.

A photo I took last year, showing the future Flight IIA Burke USS Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee (DDG 123), front, and PCU USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125), rear, at Ingalls’s West Bank, fitting out. Note the differences in their masts. The Flight III upgrade is centered on the AN/SPY-6(V)1 Air and Missile Defense Radar and “incorporates upgrades to the electrical power and cooling capacity plus additional associated changes to provide greatly enhanced warfighting capability to the fleet.”

Via DOD today, emphasis mine:

Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine, is awarded a fixed-price incentive (firm target) multiyear contract for construction of three DDG 51 class ships – one each in fiscal 2023, 2024, and 2026. This contract includes options for engineering change proposals, design budgeting requirements, and post-delivery availabilities on the awarded firm multiyear ships. This contract also includes options for construction of additional DDG 51 class ships, which may be subject to future competition in accordance with the terms and conditions of the contract. Therefore, the dollar values associated with the multiyear contract are considered source selection sensitive information and will not be made public at this time (see 41 U.S. Code 2101, et seq., Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 2.101 and FAR 3.104). Work will be performed in Bath, Maine (69%); Cincinnati, Ohio (4%); Walpole, Massachusetts (4%); York, Pennsylvania (2 %); South Portland, Maine (1%); Falls Church, Virginia (1%); and other locations below 1% (collectively totaling 19%), and is expected to be completed by December 2033. Fiscal 2022 and 2023 shipbuilding and conversion, Navy funding will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was procured via a limited competition between Huntington Ingalls Inc., and Bath Iron Works pursuant to U.S. Code 3204 (a) (3) (A) and FAR 6.302-3 (Industrial Mobilization), with two offers received. Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-23-C-2305).

Huntington Ingalls Inc., Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Mississippi, is awarded a fixed-price incentive (firm-target) multiyear contract for construction of six DDG 51 class ships – one in fiscal 2023, one in fiscal 2024, two in fiscal 2025, one in fiscal 2026, and one in fiscal 2027. This contract includes options for engineering change proposals, design budgeting requirements, and post-delivery availabilities on the awarded firm multiyear ships. This contract includes options for construction of additional DDG 51 class ships, which may be subject to future competition in accordance with the terms and conditions of the contract. Therefore, the dollar values associated with the multiyear contract are considered source selection sensitive information and will not be made public at this time (see 41 U.S. Code 2101, et seq., Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 2.101 and FAR 3.104). Work will be performed in Pascagoula, Mississippi (77%); and other locations below 1 percent (collectively totaling 23%), and is expected to be completed by June 2034. Fiscal 2022 and 2023 shipbuilding and conversion, Navy funding will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was procured via a limited competition between Huntington Ingalls Inc., and Bath Iron Works pursuant to U.S Code 3204 (a) (3) (A) and FAR 6.302-3 (Industrial Mobilization), with two offers received. Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-23-C-2307).

Jack Lucas, Christened

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One of my regular stops every few weeks when I go back “home” to Pascagoula, besides Ed’s Drive-In, is the Old Coast Guard Station, AKA “The Point” where I chronicle the fleet being built at Ingalls, something I’ve done ever since I pedaled my AMF Gold Fever down there as a snot-nosed kid. Over the years I’ve seen Spruances, Kidds, Ticos, Burkes, Sa’ar Vs, Tarawas, Wasps, San Antonios, and the like slide down the ways. I even saw the rusty but still beautiful old Iowa come towed past the point and then ultimately sail on her own back out to sea, and her sister ship Wisconsin do the same thing three years later.

A recent trip to The Point showed USS Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG-1002), the third and final Zumwalt-class destroyer, along the West Bank of the Pascagoula River to receive her armament fit, the 12th San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock USS Fort Lauderdale (LPD-28) finishing her outfitting, and PCU USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. (DDG 121), a Flight IIA Burke, on the historic old East Bank finishing her days at the yard before she sails to be commissioned at Charleston in May.

As a youth, I was on the ground at Ingalls with my high school JROTC unit to provide the color guard for several christenings and commissionings (USS Cape St. George, Stout, Mitscher, Russell, et, al) then as a young adult helped build several of these vessels including USS Boxer, Stethem, Ramage, Benfold, and so on.

However, I always felt that there was never really a historic Mississippi connection to these vessels, until recently. Even the USS Farragut— who called Pascagoula a hometown for a while— was somehow built in Maine.

While the “invincible” Jacklyn Harold “Jack” Lucas hailed from North Carolina, the youngest Medal of Honor recipient in WWII– who saved the lives of three men on Iwo Jima just six days after his 17th birthday (and enlisted at 14!)– spent most of his adult life, including his twilight years, in South Mississippi.

I even met Mr. Lucas “Call me Jack” at an event in Hattiesburg a few years before his death. He was a total gentleman and a hell of a storyteller.

So it filled my heart with joy to find out that the future USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125), the first Flight III Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, has been quietly under construction at Ingalls since 2019.

A photo I took last month, showing the future Flight IIA Burke USS Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee (DDG 123), front, and PCU USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125), rear, at Ingalls’s West Bank, fitting out. Note the differences in their masts. The Flight III upgrade is centered on the AN/SPY-6(V)1 Air and Missile Defense Radar and “incorporates upgrades to the electrical power and cooling capacity plus additional associated changes to provide greatly enhanced warfighting capability to the fleet.”

Lucas was christened this weekend.