PASCAGOULA, Miss. -- Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) marked the start of fabrication on the future USS John Finn (DDG 113), Sept. 10, signifying the first 100 tons of steel cut for the Navy's latest ship in the Arleigh Burke guided-missile destroyer program.
John Finn will be the first ship in the DDG 51 program restart and the 29th DDG 51 class destroyer built at HII.
"This ship, and the Arleigh Burke class destroyers that follow her, represent the next chapter in this extremely successful shipbuilding program," said Capt. Mark Vandroff, DDG 51 Class program manager, Program Executive Office (PEO) Ships. "These ships provide superior combat capability at an affordable price to our nation."
The Navy awarded HII a detail design and construction contract for DDG 113 June 15, 2011. Currently, the Navy has four Arleigh Burke-class destroyers under contract: DDG 113 and DDG 114 at HII, and DDG 115 and DDG 116 at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works. The Navy is relying on a stable and mature infrastructure while increasing the ship's air and missile defense capabilities through spiral upgrades to the weapons and sensor suites. All of these Flight IIA destroyers will be delivered with Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) capability.
DDG 51 class ships are multi-mission surface combatants designed to perform in anti-air, surface and subsurface environments. These destroyers are equipped with the Navy's Aegis Combat System, the world's foremost integrated naval weapon system.
DDG 113 is expected to deliver in early 2016, and is named after John William Finn, a Sailor in the U.S. Navy who received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the attack on Pearl Harbor in World War II. As a chief aviation ordnanceman stationed at Naval Air Station Kaneohe Bay, he earned the medal by manning a machine gun from an exposed position throughout the attack, despite being repeatedly wounded. At the time of his death in May 2010, Finn was the oldest living Medal of Honor recipient and the last living recipient from the attack on Pearl Harbor.
As one of the Defense Department's largest acquisition organizations, PEO Ships, an affiliated PEO of the Naval Sea Systems Command, is responsible for executing the development and procurement of all major surface combatants, amphibious ships, special mission and support ships, and special warfare craft. Currently, the majority of shipbuilding programs managed by PEO Ships benefit from serial production efficiencies, which are critical to delivering ships on cost and schedule.
