Ingalls delivers Zumwalt deckhouse

GULFPORT, Miss. -- Huntington Ingalls Industries announced that the company's Ingalls Shipbuilding division has delivered to the Navy the composite deckhouse for the Zumwalt-class destroyer, DDG 1000. The 900-ton structure houses the ship's bridge, radars, antennas and intake/exhaust systems and is designed to provide a significantly smaller radar cross-section than any other ship in today's fleet. Ingalls is building the composite deckhouse and hangar for the DDG 1000 class at the company's Composite Center of Excellence in Gulfport. Made almost exclusively using cored composite construction processes, the deckhouse and hangar take advantage of the properties of carbon fiber materials and balsa wood cores. When cured, the composite structure is as strong as steel but requires little maintenance and is very lightweight. The Gulfport facility also builds composite masts for the Navy's San Antonio (LPD 17) class of amphibious ships. (Source: Huntington Ingalls, 10/09/12)