Navy to seek 3rd stealth destroyer

Published 10:20 pm Monday, August 18, 2008

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

The Navy had said a month ago that it was scrapping the DDG-1000 Zumwalt destroyer program once the first two are built in favor of more of the current-generation DDG-51, or Arleigh Burke, destroyers.

Of the first two Zumwalts, one will be built at Maine’s Bath Iron Works and the other at Northrop Grumman’s Ingalls yard in Pascagoula, Miss.

The Zumwalt features composite materials, an unconventional wave-piercing hull and a smaller crew than the Arleigh Burke. At 14,500 tons, the Zumwalt is 50 percent larger than its predecessor and costs twice as much.