General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, a business unit of General Dynamics, announced today that the U.S. Navy has exercised an option to add an additional DDG 51 destroyer to the multi-year contract awarded in 2023. Bath Iron Works currently has under construction the Flight IIA Arleigh Burke-class destroyers Harvey C. Barnum Jr. (DDG 124) and Patrick Gallagher (DDG 127) as well as the Flight III configuration destroyers Louis H. Wilson Jr. (DDG 126), William Charette (DDG 130), Quentin Walsh (DDG 132), John E. Kilmer (DDG 134) and Richard G. Lugar (DDG 136).
“We are proud to be selected to build this ship for the U.S. Navy and to continue our legacy of contributing to the nation’s defense,” said Charles F. Krugh, president of Bath Iron Works. “I appreciate the efforts of our team to improve the construction process and build to the plan. We are clawing back schedule so we can deliver more Bath-built ships to our Navy. I would also like to acknowledge and thank our Congressional delegation who added this ship to the Fiscal Year 2025 Defense Appropriations Bill.”
The Arleigh Burke class of guided-missile destroyers (DDGs) is a United States Navy class of destroyers centered around the Aegis Combat System and the SPY-1D multifunction passive electronically scanned array radar. The class is named after Arleigh Burke, an American destroyer admiral in World War II and later Chief of Naval Operations. With an overall length of 505 to 509.5 feet (153.9 to 155.3 m), displacement ranging from 8,300 to 9,700 tons, and weaponry including over 90 missiles, the Arleigh Burke–class destroyers are larger and more heavily armed than many previous classes of guided-missile cruisers.
Bath Iron Works (BIW) is a major United States shipyard located on the Kennebec River in Bath, Maine, founded in 1884 as Bath Iron Works, Limited. Since 1995, Bath Iron Works has been a subsidiary of General Dynamics, one of the world’s largest defense companies. General Dynamics is a global aerospace and defense company that offers a broad portfolio of products and services in business aviation; ship construction and repair; land combat vehicles, weapons systems and munitions; and technology products and services. General Dynamics employs more than 110,000 people worldwide and generated $47.7 billion in revenue in 2024.
