General Dynamics Bath Iron Works announced on 1 August 2025 that the US Navy has exercised an option to add an additional Arleigh Burke-class (DDG 51) guided-missile destroyer to the multi-year contract awarded in 2023.
“I appreciate the efforts of our team to improve the construction process and build to the plan. We are clawing back schedule so we can deliver more Bath-built ships to our Navy,” noted Charles Krugh, president of Bath Iron Works. “I would also like to acknowledge and thank our Congressional delegation who added this ship to the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Defense Appropriations Bill.”
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Industry plan to deliver this contract at a rate of two DDG 51s per fiscal year (FY).
History of Arleigh Burke
The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer programme is one of the longest-running shipbuilding programmes in US Navy history. The Navy began procuring DDG 51s, also known as Aegis destroyers, in FY1985, and a total of 94 have been procured through FY2024, including two in that same year.
DDG 51s currently cost around $2.5bn each to procure. The Navy’s proposed FY2025 budget estimates the combined procurement cost of the two requested for procurement at nearly $5bn.
The Congressional Research Service suggests that the vessel will come in the form of the latest Flight III iteration. This configuration includes the AN/SPY-6(V)1 air and missile defence radar, the Aegis Baseline 10 combat system, and upgrades to the electric power and cooling capacity.
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By GlobalDataThe first Flight III ship, Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125), entered service in June 2023.
In order, DDGs 51-71 represent the original design and are designated as Flight I; DDGs 72-78 are Flight II ships; and DDGs 79-124 and DDG 127 are Flight IIA ships. The Flight III baseline begins with DDGs 125-126 and continues with DDG 128 and subsequent vessels.
Bath Iron Works currently has under construction the Flight IIA Arleigh Burke-class destroyers Harvey C. Barnum Jr. (DDG 124) and Patrick Gallagher (DDG 127) as well as the Flight III configuration destroyers Louis H. Wilson Jr. (DDG 126), William Charette (DDG 130), Quentin Walsh (DDG 132), John E. Kilmer (DDG 134) and Richard G. Lugar (DDG 136).
However, Bath Iron Works have spent the last several years digging through a backlog of work at its Maine yard that the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated.
Meanwhile, HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding, the other yard that builds Arleigh Burke destroyers, has performed slightly better. Ingalls is also winding down the Coast Guard’s Legend-class National Security Cutter production line, which could open up more capacity at its yard in Pascagoula, Mississippi.
