The Navy’s Most Prolific Destroyer Will Defend the Seas for 40 More Years (2024)

• USS Arleigh Burke, the first of her class of destroyers, will get an upgrade that will keep her at sea until 2031—at least.
• The Burke-class destroyers are the most successful U.S. Navy ships of the modern era, capable of everything from anti-piracy patrols to shooting down satellites.
• The class of destroyers has been in almost continuous production for 33 years, yielding more than 70 ships.

In an announcement on March 14, the U.S. Navy has gave its oldest operational destroyer, USS Arleigh Burke, the green light to receive an upgrade that will keep the ship in continuous operation for 40 years or more. According to the statement, the ship was designed to last until 2026, but the Navy believes there is a viable path toward 2031 with an upgrade package. Burke last received a mid-life update in 2010.

The lead ship of her class of more than 70 destroyers, Burke has served continuously since 1991. The Burke-class destroyers not only make up the bulk of the surface Navy, but arguably saved the entire Navy in the 2010s.

Heavily Armed and Built to Change With the Times

The Arleigh Burke guided-missile destroyers are the most successful and prolific Navy destroyers since World War II. The destroyers were designed in the 1980s to operate alongside the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruisers, and are in many ways scaled down cruisers with many of the same sensors and armaments. The Burke- and Ticonderoga-class ships both operate SPY-1 series phased-array radars linked with the Aegis combat system and vertical-launch missile silos designed to carry large numbers of missiles. The result is a ship that is optimized to repel mass missile attacks on carrier battle groups, a major mission of the Cold War.

The adaptability of the Aegis combat system, as well as the other major systems aboard, made the ships capable of changing with the times. Today’s Aegis combat system can engage satellites in low-Earth orbit, shoot down ballistic missiles carrying nuclear weapons, and still repel mass attacks. Each ship is equipped with 90 to 96 Mk.41 vertical-launch system silos, each of which in turn can carry SM-3 ballistic missile interceptors (which can also engage satellites), SM-6 missiles, SM-2 air-defense missiles, VL-ASROC anti-submarine weapons, Evolved Sea Sparrow short-range missiles, and Tomahawk cruise missiles. The ability to mix and match missiles to fit the mission gives the Burke-class unprecedented flexibility.

Each destroyer is also equipped with one 5-inch gun, two Phalanx close-in weapon systems for last-ditch defense, two 25-millimeter Mk.38 chain guns, and six anti-submarine torpedoes. Many carry between two and eight Harpoon anti-ship missiles. Early ships were limited to just a helicopter flight deck, but later versions included two hangars for storing and maintaining MH-60 helicopters and drones.

Savior of the Navy

The Navy had originally planned to cap the Burke-class destroyers at 61 ships, a successful run by any stretch of the imagination. The unraveling of the Zumwalt-class destroyers, which were meant to follow the Burkes in funding and production, left a gaping hole in the future of the Navy surface force. The Navy had planned to build 32 Zumwalts. but cost overruns, delays, and a spike in the cost of precision ammunition for the ships’ 155-millimeter guns led to the class being canceled after just three ships.

That caused a dilemma—the cancellation of the Zumwalts left a hole in the service’s shipbuilding plans, and if the service did not get more destroyer-sized ships, the size of the fleet would invariably shrink. This was a problem exacerbated by the retirement of the smaller Perry-class frigates. The Burke production line was set to close after the launch of the last ship USS Michael Murphy.

In 2009, the service made the decision to simply restart Burke construction, building more ships, and making technology upgrades when necessary. The new subclass—known as the Flight III class—includes a new, more powerful SPY-6 radar, new Rolls-Royce generators capable of generating 33 percent more electricity (12,000 kilowatts total), and 96 vertical-launch system missile silos.

The Navy has ordered 19 Flight III destroyers, on top of the original 70 built, and at least one estimate points to an eventual buy of up to 42 new destroyers. That would sustain the Burke production line for at least another ten years, making the class perhaps the only destroyers in history to retire their oldest ships just as the newest ships are leaving the shipyards.

The Takeaway

The Burke-class destroyers have been an invaluable part of the U.S. Navy, bearing the backbone of daily operations, while insulating the service from procurement disasters that threaten to weaken the fleet. The Navy is trying to grow the fleet at a time when it can use every ship it can get. The oldest, Arleigh Burke herself, will serve at least 40 years, and if the Navy thinks it can squeeze another few years out of her, will undoubtedly do so.