Source: United States Navy
PASCAGOULA, Miss. – The Navy’s newest guided-missile destroyer, the future USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125), sailed away from the Huntington Ingalls Industries’ (HII) Ingalls Shipbuilding Division shipyard, Sept 26.
“Sail away of the first Flight III Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer is a historical event for the program,” said Capt. Seth Miller, the DDG 51 program manager at the Arleigh Burke-class program office, Program Executive Office, Ships. “The Navy continues to field cutting-edge warfighting capability that will ply the oceans and deter our adversaries for decades to come.”
DDG-125 will be commissioned Oct. 7, 2023 at a ceremony in Tampa, Florida before sailing to its homeport in San Diego.
DDG-125 is named for Pfc. Jacklyn Harold “Jack” Lucas, who served in the U.S. Marines during World War II, earning the Medal of Honor for his heroism at Iwo Jima, when he was just 17 years old. He is the youngest Marine, and the youngest serviceman in World War II, to be awarded the United States’ highest military decoration for valor. In 1961, he returned to military service as a captain in the U.S. Army and trained younger troops headed for Vietnam.
Arleigh Burke-class destroyers are multi-mission ships able to hold targets at risk on land, at sea, in the air, and under water using a suite of sophisticated weapons and sensors. The Flight III configuration includes the AN/SPY-6(V)1 Air and Missile Defense Radar, providing greatly enhanced warfighting capability to the fleet.
Ingalls is also in production on future destroyers Ted Stevens (DDG 128), Jeremiah Denton (DDG 129), George M. Neal (DDG 131), and Sam Nunn (DDG 133).
As one of the Defense Department’s largest acquisition organizations, PEO Ships is responsible for executing the development and procurement of all destroyers, amphibious ships, sealift ships, support ships, boats and craft.