The US Navy’s future Arleigh Burke-class USS Delbert D. Black (DDG 119) completed builder’s trials on February 22 after spending three days underway in the Gulf of Mexico.
The trials were carried out by Mississippi-based shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) and its Ingalls Shipbuilding Division.
The ship was previously underway for Alpha trials in December, and will be underway again in March for acceptance trials, which will be conducted by the US Navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey.
DDG 119 is scheduled to enter service in September 2020.
“The Navy and our dedicated shipbuilders have continued to make strides towards delivering this exceptional capability to the fleet, and performed well during builder’s trials,” said Capt. Seth Miller, DDG 51 class program manager, Program Executive Office (PEO) Ships. “This ship continues the proud Aegis shipbuilding legacy and will provide the Navy with a 21st century fighting edge.”
Delbert D. Black is configured as a Flight IIA destroyer, equipped with the Navy’s Aegis Combat System, and incorporating some technologies from the Flight III destroyers that will feature more power-generation capabilities, and the new AN/SPY-6 radar, also referred to as the Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR).
HII’s Pascagoula shipyard is also currently in production on the future destroyers Frank E. Petersen Jr (DDG 121), Lenah H. Sutcliffe Higbee (DDG 123), and Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125), the first ship to be built in the Flight III configuration.
