Bath-Built Destroyer Named for Navy Secretary, Statesman

By RICHARD R. BURGESS
Managing Editor

The Navy’s newest Flight IIA Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer — built at General Dynamics’ Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine — honors one of the nation’s most distinguished public servants.

DDG 94 has been christened Nitze in honor of 97-year-old Paul H. Nitze, a former secretary of the Navy and ambassador who was on hand for the April 17 ceremonies. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, delivered the keynote address at the ceremonies, at which Nitze’s wife and the ship’s sponsor, Leezee Porter, christened the ship.

Nitze, a 1928 Harvard graduate who started out as a Wall Street investment banker, served as director and then vice chairman of the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey at the end of World War II. He served as assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs and later as secretary of the Navy from 1963-67.

He served in numerous other government assignments and was one of the chief architects of U.S. policy toward the Soviet Union. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan in 1985.

The 511-foot-long Nitze is the 44th of 62 planned Arleigh Burke-class DDGs. Cmdr. Michael Hegarty will be the first commanding officer of the 9,200-ton warship.

In a related development, the Navy has announced the names for several future Arleigh Burke destroyers: Gridley (DDG 101), Sampson (DDG 102), Truxtun (DDG 103), Sterett (DDG 105) and Dewey (DDG 106). The keel for the Kidd (DDG 100) was laid at the Northrop Grumman Ship Systems Ingalls Operations shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., on April 29.

Defense Industry Notes

The Marine Corps’ KC-130J Super Hercules aerial refueling tanker — built by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. — has been recommended for full fleet introduction by the commander of the Navy’s Operational Test and Evaluation Force. The KC-130J completed its operational evaluation — the Navy’s final exam for new aircraft — in January and has been recommended for full-rate production. The KC-130J will replace older KC-130F/R models in the Marine Corps.

Northrop Grumman Newport News Shipbuilding laid the keel of the fourth Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarine, the USS North Carolina, on May 22. The Navy plans to christen the submarine in 2006.

Raytheon Missile Systems has been awarded a $232.7 million Naval Sea Systems Command contract to begin full-rate production of the RIM-162 Evolved SeaSparrow Missile (ESSM) for the U.S. Navy and the navies of nine other nations. Raytheon will build 368 ESSMs by October 2006. The ESSM is designed to defend ships against high-performance antiship cruise missiles.

Northrop Grumman’s Litening AT pod is being integrated in the two-seat F/A-18D Hornet strike fighters flown by six Marine Corps all-weather fighter-attack squadrons. The Litening AT is a multisensor laser target designating and navigation system used with great success by the Marine Corps’ AV-8B Harrier II attack aircraft. The Litening AT “will enhance the precision attack capabilities of their Hornets,” said Mike Lennon, vice president of targeting and surveillance at Northrop Grumman.

The National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO) on April 22 laid the keel of the USS Lewis and Clark, the first of the Military Sealift Command’s new class of dry cargo/ammunition ships (T-AKEs). NASSCO has been contracted to build six T-AKEs for a value of $1.87 billion. The Navy has the option to order six more T-AKEs. The Lewis and Clark is scheduled to enter service in 2005.

One of five airborne mine countermeasures systems planned for deployment on board the Navy’s MH-60S helicopter — built by Sikorsky — has begun flight-testing of its integration on the helicopter. The Airborne Laser Mine-Detection System — built by Northrop Grumman — uses laser imaging detection and ranging technology to detect naval mines in shallow water.

LPD 22, the fifth San Antonio-class landing platform dock ship — being built by Northrop Grumman Ship Systems Avondale Operations in New Orleans, La. — will be named USS San Diego, the fourth Navy ship named for the California seaport.

VT Halter Marine laid the keel of the Henry B. Bigelow, a new fisheries survey ship for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), on April 21 at the company’s shipyard in Moss Point, Miss. In a related development, NOAA commissioned its latest ship, the oceanographic research vessel Nancy Foster, in Charleston, S.C., on May 10. The Nancy Foster has been operating for almost a year, but Hurricane Isabel postponed its original commissioning ceremony. VT Halter Marine also christened the 313-foot-long Army logistics support vessel MG Robert Small on April 21.

Boeing Naval Systems delivered its 7,000th AGM-84 Harpoon antiship cruise missile on May 6. The missile, a Block II version, was turned over to Egypt, one of 27 nations that deploy the missile.