HII to christen US Navy’s first Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Ingalls Shipbuilding division has revealed it will christen first Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Jack H. Lucas built for the US Navy.

As informed, the christening ceremony is scheduled for 26 March at the company’s shipyard. Recently, the firm announced that it has achieved the Aegis light-off milestone on the US Navy’s first Flight III Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer. The milestone marked the beginning of combat system testing as the ship is being prepared for propulsion tests and eventually sea trials.

The US Navy’s first DDG 51 Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer built in the Flight III configuration was launched in June 2021, while the keel-laying ceremony was held in 2019.

The DDG 51 is a multi-mission guided-missile destroyer designed to operate offensively and defensively, independently, or as units of carrier strike groups, expeditionary strike groups, and surface action groups in multi-threat environments that include air, surface and subsurface threats.

The ship was named after Jack. H Lucas, a longtime resident of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, who was the youngest Marine and the youngest service member in World War II to receive the Medal of Honor.

DDG 125 will be the first Arleigh Burke-class destroyer built in the Flight III configuration with improved capability and capacity to perform anti-air warfare and ballistic missile defense in support of the integrated air and missile defense mission.

The Flight III design contains modifications from the earlier DDG 51 class, to enable the SPY-6 radar, in association with Aegis Baseline 10, which includes larger electronically scanned arrays and the power generation and cooling equipment required to operate the powerful new radar.