HII Ingalls Shipbuilding has laid the keel of the US Navy’s 83rd Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer in Mississippi.
The future USS Sam Nunn (DDG 133) is the fifth vessel to receive a Flight III configuration that incorporates next-generation air and missile defense radar as well as a combat system, enabling competitiveness in the face of multiple surface, air, and underwater threats simultaneously.
The ship’s namesake was a US senator from the state of Georgia and chair of the Armed Services Committee that enabled the Department of Defense Reorganization Act and the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, which reduced the nuclear weapons of the US and Russia post-Cold War.
During the ceremony, the initials of the former senator’s daughter and ship sponsor, Michelle Nunn, were etched into the hull’s future keel plate. Sam Nunn himself was also present.
Alongside the USS Nunn, HII is working on four more Arleigh Burke ships: the USS Ted Stevens (DDG 128), USS Jeremiah Denton (DDG 129), USS George M. Neal (DDG 131), and USS Thad Cochran (DDG 135).
About the Arleigh Burke Destroyer
The US Navy’s Arleigh Burke warship measures up to 510 feet (155 meters) depending on its Flight configuration.
It is powered by three Rolls-Royce generators with about 5,400 horsepower each and four General Electric gas turbines with 26,250 horsepower each.
The vessel sails at 30 knots (35 miles/56 kilometers per hour) and has a range of 5,100 miles (8,2078 kilometers).
In addition to its sensing and command and control suite, the hull is equipped with electronic warfare, torpedo, and decoy countermeasures. Its armaments include lightweight and naval gun systems, and anti-ship, anti-air, anti-ballistic, land-attack, and cruise missiles.
An Arleigh Burke can carry up to 300 passengers, rigid-hull inflatable boats, and maritime helicopters.
