Huntington Ingalls Industries’ (HII) Ingalls Shipbuilding division delivered the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. (DDG-121) to the U.S. Navy during a signing ceremony held on Tuesday, November 30. This milestone officially transfers custody from HII to the U.S. Navy.
«I am again very proud of our DDG team today», said Kari Wilkinson, Ingalls Shipbuilding president. «Not only have they completed another major program milestone, but they have done so in the face of a pandemic. This team, and all of our shipbuilders across our entire portfolio, are what shipbuilding is all about».
Delivery of USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. (DDG-121) marked the 33rd destroyer Ingalls has built for Navy, with four more currently under construction, including USS Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee (DDG-123), USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG-125), USS Ted Stevens (DDG-128) and USS Jeremiah Denton (DDG 129).
Arleigh Burke-class destroyers are highly capable, multi-mission ships and can conduct a variety of operations, from peacetime presence and crisis management to sea control and power projection, all in support of the United States military strategy. Guided missile destroyers are capable of simultaneously fighting air, surface and subsurface battles. The ship contains myriad offensive and defensive weapons designed to support maritime defense needs well into the 21st century.
DDG-121 is named for Frank E. Petersen Jr., who was the U.S. Marine Corps’ first African-American aviator and general officer. After entering the Naval Aviation Cadet Program in 1950, Petersen would go on to fly more than 350 combat missions during the Korean and Vietnam wars.
CHARACTERISTICS
| Length Overall | 525 feet/160 m |
| Beam – Waterline | 65.6 feet/20 m |
| Draft | 32.8 feet/10 m |
| Displacement – Full Load | 9,217 tons/9,363 metric tons |
| Power Plant | 4 General Electric LM 2500-30 gas turbines; 2 shafts; 2 CRP (Contra-Rotating) propellers; 100,000 shaft horsepower/75,000 kW |
| Speed | in excess of 30 knots/34.5 mph/55.5 km/h |
| Range | 4,400 NM/8,149 km at 20 knots/23 mph/37 km/h |
| Crew | 380 total: 32 Officers, 27 CPO (Chief Petty Officer), 321 OEM |
| Surveillance | AN/SPY-6 Air and Missile Defense Radar (Raytheon Company) and Aegis Combat System (Lockheed Martin); SPS-73(V) Navigation; SPS-67(V)3 Surface Search; 3 SPG-62 Illuminator; SQQ-89(V)6 sonar incorporating SQS-53C hull mounted and SQR-19 towed array sonars used with Mark-116 Mod 7 ASW fire control system |
| Electronics/Countermeasures | SLQ-32(V)3; Mark-53 Mod 0 Decoy System; Mark-234 Decoy System; SLQ-25A Torpedo Decoy; SLQ-39 Surface Decoy; URN-25 TACAN; UPX-29 IFF System; Kollmorgen Mark-46 Mod 1 Electro-Optical Director |
| Aircraft | 2 embarked SH-60 helicopters ASW operations; RAST (Recovery Assist, Secure and Traverse) |
| Armament | 2 Mark-41 Vertical Launching System (VLS) with 96 Standard, Vertical Launch ASROC (Anti-Submarine Rocket) & Tomahawk ASM (Air-to-Surface Missile)/LAM (Loitering Attack Missile); 5-in (127-mm)/54 (62) Mark-45 gun; 2 (1) CIWS (Close-In Weapon System); 2 Mark-32 triple 324-mm torpedo tubes for Mark-46 or Mark-50 ASW torpedos |
GUIDED MISSILE DESTROYERS LINEUP
Flight IIA: Technology Insertion
| Ship | Yard | Launched | Commissioned | Homeport |
| DDG-116 Thomas Hudner | GDBIW | 04-23-17 | 12-01-18 | Mayport, Florida |
| DDG-117 Paul Ignatius | HIIIS | 11-12-16 | 07-27-19 | Mayport, Florida |
| DDG-118 Daniel Inouye | GDBIW | 10-27-19 | Pearl Harbor, Hawaii | |
| DDG-119 Delbert D. Black | HIIIS | 09-08-17 | 09-26-20 | Mayport, Florida |
| DDG-120 Carl M. Levin | GDBIW | 05-16-21 | ||
| DDG-121 Frank E. Peterson Jr. | HIIIS | 07-13-18 | ||
| DDG-122 John Basilone | GDBIW | |||
| DDG-123 Lenah H. Sutcliffe Higbee | HIIIS | 01-27-20 | ||
| DDG-124 Harvey C. Barnum Jr. | GDBIW | |||
| DDG-127 Patrick Gallagher | GDBIW |