HII launches future DDG 119

PASCAGOULA, Miss. - The future Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Delbert D. Black (DDG 119) was launched from Huntington Ingalls Industries’ shipyard on Sept. 8, according to a Sept. 11 media release from Naval Sea Systems Command. Launching of a ship is a multi-day process that includes moving the ship from a land facility to the dry dock, and slowly flooded until the ship is afloat. With the ship in the water, final outfitting and production can commence. “With four DDG 51-class ships currently in the water and in route to delivery, the program is in serial production and leveraging production efficiencies,” said Capt. Casey Moton, DDG 51 program manager. The ship is being configured as a Flight IIA destroyer, which enables power projection, forward presence, and escort operations at sea in support of Low Intensity Conflict/Coastal and Littoral Offshore Warfare as well as open ocean conflict. HII-Pascagoula is currently in production on future destroyers Ralph Johnson (DDG 114), Paul Ignatius (DDG 117), Frank E. Petersen Jr. (DDG 121) and Lenah H. Sutcliffe Higbee (DDG 123). HII also is under contract for one additional DDG, Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125), awarded as part of the five-ship buy. It will be the first ship to be configured in the Flight III design. (Source: Seapower Magazine 09/11/17)