It is in the works for Raytheon and Huntington Ingalls Industries to install the Spy-6 Radar on Flight III, the U.S. Navy's USS Jack H. Lucas guided-missile destroyer to provide the newly launched ship with a more advanced capability in threat detection capability.
Improved technology for the US Navy
The introduction of the DDG-125 missile destroyer that is in the Flight III configuration comes with the new Raytheon radar which promises advances beyond the Aegis radars, said the company spokesperson last Wednesday. One feature of the new system is that it tracks missiles and planes much farther than those older systems, and can differentiate noise and interference from electronic jamming of signals to confuse other radars, reported Executive Biz.
Included in the design of the equipment is a multiple and modular system that can be customized and configured for scalability, or used for ship classes and what other mission modules are needed. According to Scott Spence, the program area director for naval radars, as noted by Raytheon Missiles and Defense," Adding new capabilities, the fleet will be getting the new radars."
The SPY-6 array deliveries were completed in October of last year enabled by an agile software development process. The ship is expected to be ready by 2024, said the Navy and its industrial partners.
Launching of the First Flight III missile destroyer
It is the first DDG 51 Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer to the first in Flight III variant, this future Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125) was launched last June 4, from the HII shipyard, cited Nav Sea. The shipbuilder is working on four more of the DDG 51, which includes the DDG 121, DDG 123, DDG 128, DD129 which are in the Flight III class. More than 20 of these guided-missile destroyers are being built at HII shipyards.
The ship is built around the AN/SPY-6(V)1 Air and Missile Defense Radar, with improvements that include better electrical power output and cooling capacity, and relevant changes to the hull that makes it more than a cosmetic upgrade that goes deep into the ship's hull itself.
As the Russians and Chinese race to build new ships, this Flight III baseline begins DDG 125-126 and DDG 128 to other ships of the line.
Capt. Seth Miller, the officer assigned to the Arleigh-Burkes Missile Destroyer program, says that all the following ships after Jack Lucas in the same ship class will have next-generation Integrated Air and Missile Defense capability, longer ranges, and better tracking are crucial to the Navy.
Missions of the ship class
The DDG 51 is a multi-mission guided-missile destroyer able to operate offense and defense under multi-threat settings involving air, surface, and subsurface threats, whether independently or as part of naval groups operating in the US Fleet.
Flight III is the class's fourth flight modification throughout its 30-year service, following the first ships of Flight I, II, and IIA ships that went before it. Other ships totaling 20 DDG 51s are to be built by HII and are slated to install the Spy-6 Radar on the Arleigh-Burke class missile destroyers in their shipyards.
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