This destroyer will be the fourth of four Aegis destroyers to be built by Northrop Grumman's Ship Systems sector since September 2002, as part of a multiyear procurement plan in which the Navy awards multiple ships under a single contract.

This contract releases the funding for DDG 110, the 60th ship in the DDG 51 program, and the 28th to be built by Northrop Grumman at its Pascagoula, Mississippi shipyard. The Arleigh Burke class destroyers are equipped with the Aegis Combat system, which integrates ship sensors and weapons systems to engage anti-ship missile threats.

The Aegis system comprises four subsystems--AN/SPY-1 multifunction radar, Command and Decision System (CDS), Aegis Display System (ADS), and the Weapon Control System (WCS). The CDS receives data from shipboard sensors and also from external sensors via satellite communications and provides command, control and threat assessment. The WCS receives engagement instruction from the CDS, selects weapons and interfaces with the weapon fire control systems.

The latest Aegis upgrade, Baseline 7.1, was introduced to the fleet on board the USS Pinkney (DDG 91) in May 2004. The upgrade includes the new radar, the AN/SPY-1D(V), which has enhanced electronic countermeasures and more effective capability in littoral environments. (Littoral environments are those closest to a shore.) Baseline 7.1 is based upon commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) computer architecture.

Trials of the upgrade in March 2003 included live firings of the Evolved Seasparrow Missile (ESSM).

The first Arleigh Burke class Aegis destroyer was commissioned in 1991. Over the years, contracts for the destroyers have been split between the Northrop Grumman shipyard in Pascagoula and General Dynamics' Bath Iron Works, in Bath, Maine.

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