Defense News:
WASHINGTON ― When the destroyer Jack Lucas joins the U.S. Navy’s fleet in 2024, it will look similar to the 73 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers that preceded it. But it’s going to be a very different, more capable killer than its predecessors.
Huntington Ingalls announced Tuesday that it had begun fabrication of the first Flight III Destroyer, a ship that crucially adds Raytheon’s AN/SPY-6 air and missile defense radar.
A ship is considered “in fabrication” after the first 100 tons of steel have been cut ― a milestone that Jack Lucas surpassed this week at Ingalls’ Pascagoula, Mississippi, shipyard.
The Flight III is a major overhaul of the guided-missile destroyer. It required a 45 percent redesign of the hull, most of which was done to accommodate the AN/SPY-6 and its formidable power needs.
