Portland Press Herald

The newest destroyer under construction at Bath Iron Works will provide a boost to the Navy’s ballistic missile defense capabilities.

The latest version of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer features tech upgrades that enable the ships to simultaneously defend against ballistic missiles as well as conventional threats from the air.

The new destroyers’ air defense represents “an essential evolution if we’re going to keep up with the missile threat,” said Loren Thompson, defense analyst at the Lexington Institute.“You can see things farther away. You can track them and hit them more precisely. If you’ve got an incoming missile you might be able to take two or three shots at it, instead of one,” he said.

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