After 2-plus decades, Burkes break record

[unhappycamper]

After 2-plus decades, Burkes break record
By David Sharp - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Dec 31, 2009 16:25:03 EST

BATH, Maine — Cruising through the darkness in rough seas, the destroyer Ross encountered a rogue wave that smashed into the destroyer’s bow, sending a shudder along the entire ship that knocked sleeping crew out of their bunks and damaged the sonar housing.

As alarms sounded, sleepy sailors scrambled to shore up the leak.

“We cracked the hull and kept on going like it was nothing,” retired sailor Jonathan Staeblein, of Hagerstown, Md., recalled. In fact, the 510-foot destroyer was never out of service for repairs during any deployment in the three years he served aboard as an electronic warfare technician.

Arleigh Burke-class destroyers such as the Ross and Cole, which survived a terrorist suicide bombing in Yemen, have proven to be durable workhorses in the Navy.

Over the 22 years since construction of the first one began at Bath Iron Works, the ship has steamed into the record book: The destroyer’s production run has outlasted every other battleship, cruiser, destroyer and frigate in U.S. Navy history. The only warship in production for longer was the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, said Norman Polmar, a naval historian, author and analyst.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/12/ap_arleigh_burke_record_123109/



unhappycamper comment: The $5+ billion replacement DDG-1000s were a tad expensive, so look for the Burke class destroyers to be around a while.

[Captain Hilts]

1. No need for the new destroyer design. nt