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Navy to Seek Third Stealth Destroyer

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Associated Press
Tuesday, August 19, 2008

PORTLAND, Maine, Aug. 18 -- The Navy has reversed course and decided to push for construction of a third stealth destroyer, Sen. Susan Collins said Monday.

It had said last month that it would scrap the Zumwalt destroyer program after the first two were built. The DDG-1000 warship has massive firepower but is costly. The Navy said then that it will build more of the current-generation DDG-51, or Arleigh Burke, destroyers.

Collins, a Maine Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Navy Secretary Donald Winter informed her of the decision and of the Navy's plans to buy spare parts for DDG-51s that could be used to restart production of that class of ships.

The ship will be built at Maine's Bath Iron Works, Collins said. "This is great news for Bath Iron Works," she said. "It means that the third [DDG-1000] ship is very likely to go forward, and yet there's also the potential of building more DDG-51s."



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