U.S. Navy takes delivery of second Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Ted Stevens DDG 128.

U.S. military shipbuilder Ingalls Shipbuilding delivered the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer Ted Stevens (DDG 128) to the U.S. Navy on December 29, 2025, in Pascagoula, Mississippi. The handover strengthens the Navy’s push to modernize its surface fleet and expand Flight III destroyer production amid rising maritime competition.

U.S. military shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries announced that its Ingalls Shipbuilding division formally delivered the guided missile destroyer Ted Stevens (DDG 128) to the U.S. Navy on December 29, 2025, marking a key milestone for the service’s Flight III Arleigh Burke-class program. Navy officials and shipyard leadership characterized the delivery as a tangible step forward in surface combatant modernization, reinforcing fleet readiness as the Navy adapts to Distributed Maritime Operations and increasingly complex threat environments.
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The U.S. Navy USS Ted Stevens (DDG 128), a Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, sails at sea during trials. (Picture source: HII)

In an exclusive exchange with senior Ingalls leadership, Ingalls President Brian Blanchette underscored the industrial momentum driving the destroyer line: “The delivery of Ted Stevens reflects the strong momentum of our destroyer program as we accelerate Flight III production and bring enhanced capabilities to the fleet. We are honored to deliver DDG 128 to the U.S. Navy, knowing that it will stand as a powerful asset in strengthening U.S. maritime security for decades to come.” Blanchette’s remarks hint at internal production gains and workforce expansion that have not been previously disclosed.

Technically, the Arleigh Burke-class represents the longest-running destroyer production program in U.S. Navy history, with over 80 hulls either delivered, under construction, or planned. Built around the proven Aegis Combat System, these multi-mission destroyers are designed to perform across the full spectrum of naval warfare: anti-air, anti-submarine, anti-surface, and ballistic missile defense. Flight III introduces a major generational leap in sensor, power, and cooling capabilities, significantly enhancing lethality and survivability compared to earlier iterations of the class.

The Ted Stevens incorporates the AN/SPY-6(V)1 Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR), the most advanced radar system ever installed on a U.S. Navy surface combatant. Unlike the legacy SPY-1D(V) radar found on Flight IIA ships, SPY-6 is built using scalable gallium nitride (GaN) technology, offering a 30-fold improvement in sensitivity, range, and target discrimination. It can simultaneously detect and track ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, aircraft, and surface ships with unprecedented fidelity and resilience in contested electronic warfare environments.

Coupled with the Aegis Baseline 10 Combat System, Flight III ships like Ted Stevens can execute complex, multi-domain kill chains across broader battle spaces. Baseline 10 supports full integration of the SM-6 missile and next-generation electronic warfare systems, expanding both kinetic and non-kinetic engagement options. According to U.S. Navy officials familiar with the system, this configuration allows destroyers to operate as theater-level air and missile defense assets, a role previously reserved for larger platforms or joint command nodes.

From a design and engineering standpoint, transitioning to Flight III required significant reconfiguration of the ship’s internal architecture. The increased radar power draw and thermal load necessitated the integration of upgraded power generation and distribution systems, including three new Rolls-Royce MT30 gas turbine generators and an advanced zonal electrical architecture. The hull form remains largely the same as in Flight IIA, but internal spaces were modified to accommodate greater mission system volume, equipment cooling, and future growth.

U.S. Navy program officials, speaking on background, confirmed that Ted Stevens has also completed a series of rigorous at-sea trials that tested sensor interoperability with joint and allied platforms, including live fire engagements against representative threat missiles. Insiders note that these trials were substantially more complex than those for prior flights, incorporating the U.S. Navy’s latest Cooperative Engagement Capability enhancements to facilitate shared battlespace awareness across platforms and domains.

Ingalls Shipbuilding’s delivery cadence underscores a broader industrial strategy to ramp up throughput amid increasing fleet requirements. Currently, four additional Flight III destroyers are under active fabrication at the yard’s Mississippi facilities: Jeremiah Denton (DDG 129), George M. Neal (DDG 131), Sam Nunn (DDG 133), and Thad Cochran (DDG 135). Another seven hulls are progressing through early pre-planning and material procurement phases, with names including John F. Lehman (DDG 137) and Telesforo Trinidad (DDG 139). These sequential builds, mapped out in DDG 146, reflect the U.S. Navy’s multi-year shipbuilding plan to sustain pressure on pacing threats while preserving critical warfighting capacity.

To meet this elevated tempo, Ingalls has quietly implemented a distributed shipbuilding initiative that extends work beyond its traditional labor base. Under this model, key modules and structural assemblies are being fabricated by partner yards and subcontractors across the Gulf Coast and inland states, with just-in-time delivery to the Pascagoula assembly line. Company sources describe this as a transformative shift, one that mitigates labor bottlenecks and compresses construction schedules without compromising quality or compliance.

Since launching the Arleigh Burke-class program decades ago, Ingalls has delivered 36 destroyers to the U.S. Navy, with recent emphasis on the Flight III configuration to address emergent threats in the Indo-Pacific and NATO theaters. The first Flight III vessel, USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125), set the baseline for the new radar and combat system suite, and Ted Stevens now follows as a mission-ready embodiment of that design philosophy.

Defense analysts highlight that the expanded destroyer force will be critical for distributed lethality concepts and forward deterrence. As reported in Pentagon budget documents, long-range strike and integrated air and missile defense capabilities, such as those on DDG 128, are central to the U.S. strategic posture in the contested maritime domains of the 2030s. Industry sources also point to forthcoming upgrades, including enhanced electronic warfare suites and future sensor payloads, that could be retrofitted as part of mid-life modernization initiatives.

With Ted Stevens Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer Flight III officially entered into the U.S. Navy fleet inventory, U.S. Navy planners are expected to assign the ship to a forward deployment, where it will join carrier strike groups and allied task forces to reinforce collective security objectives. As the U.S. Navy accelerates toward a more distributed and resilient force structure, destroyers like DDG 128 will be at the vanguard of sustaining global maritime dominance.

Written by Alain Servaes – Chief Editor, Army Recognition Group
Alain Servaes is a former infantry non-commissioned officer and the founder of Army Recognition. With over 20 years in defense journalism, he provides expert analysis on military equipment, NATO operations, and the global defense industry.