The Arleigh Burke class is a guided-missile destroyer family that forms the backbone of the United States Navy's surface fleet, with more than 70 ships in active service as of 2024, per the Congressional Research Service's report on the DDG-51 program. The lead ship, USS Arleigh Burke (DDG-51), was commissioned on July 4, 1991, at Norfolk, Virginia, according to the Naval History and Heritage Command. Construction of the class has continued without interruption across three decades and three major flight configurations.
This guide consolidates the open record on the class: its purpose, its flights, its builders, and the program's documented status as of 2024. All figures carry their source and date, and a navy or shipbuilder remains the attributed source of its own claims throughout.
What is the Arleigh Burke class for?
The class was designed around the Aegis combat system and the SPY-1 phased-array radar, combining air defense, surface warfare, and anti-submarine warfare on one hull. The design replaced the Spruance-class destroyers and, in the air-defense role, drew on concepts proven by the Ticonderoga-class cruisers, according to Naval History and Heritage Command's class documentation.
The result is a multi-mission surface combatant of roughly 9,000 to 9,700 tons full load displacement depending on flight, with a crew of approximately 320 officers and enlisted sailors per the United States Navy's destroyer fact file. Armament includes vertical launch cells for Standard Missile family interceptors, Tomahawk cruise missiles, and ASROC anti-submarine rockets, together with a five-inch gun and Close-In Weapon System.
How do the flights differ?
Three major flights structure the class. Flight I and Flight II ships, delivered from 1991 through the 1990s, established the baseline hull and combat system. Flight IIA, beginning with USS Oscar Austin (DDG-79) in 2000, added a hangar for two SH-60 helicopters and removed the harpoon missile launchers in later hulls, per the Congressional Research Service's DDG-51 program report.
Flight III, beginning with USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG-125), introduces the AN/SPY-6(V)1 air and missile defense radar in place of the SPY-1, a change the Navy describes as the class's largest combat-system shift since its introduction. The Flight III design keeps the hull form while restructuring power and cooling to serve the new radar, per the Congressional Research Service's 2024 report.
| Flight | First delivery | Defining change |
|---|---|---|
| Flight I | 1991, USS Arleigh Burke (DDG-51) | Baseline Aegis design |
| Flight IIA | 2000, USS Oscar Austin (DDG-79) | Two-helicopter hangar |
| Flight III | 2023, USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG-125) | AN/SPY-6(V)1 radar |
Who builds the ships?
Two yards build the class. HII's Ingalls Shipbuilding division in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and General Dynamics Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, have shared the DDG-51 production line since the 1990s, per both companies' program statements. The two-yard structure is deliberate: it preserves competition and industrial capacity for the Navy's largest surface combatant program, a point the Congressional Research Service raises in each update of its shipbuilding reports.
What is the program's documented status as of 2024?
The DDG-51 program remains in serial production, with Flight III ships in construction at both yards and the Navy requesting further hulls in its fiscal year 2025 budget as part of a planned multi-year procurement, per the Congressional Research Service's 2024 report on Navy force structure. No end date for production has been fixed; the class's successor discussions continue in budget documents without a settled design.
What the record does not establish is the fleet's precise composition beyond the near term, since retirements, delivery schedules, and future appropriations all move the count. The figures above are snapshots with their dates, and readers should treat any undated fleet number elsewhere with caution.
For more context, read USS Jack H. Lucas, First Flight III Destroyer, Commissioned.