The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer future USS Delbert D. Black (DDG-119) finished builder’s trials on Feb. 22, the Navy said Monday.
DDG-119’s shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries’ [HII] Ingalls Shipbuilding Division conducted the trials while the ship was underway in the Gulf of Mexico. The shipyard built the ship in its Pascagoula, Miss., facility.
The Delbert D. Black was previously underway in December for Alpha trials and will again be underway in March for planned acceptance trials, to be conducted by the Navy’s Board in Inspection and Survey.
DDG-119 was built as a Flight IIA destroyer and will be equipped with the Navy’s Aegis Combat System.
“The Navy and our dedicated shipbuilders have continued to make strides towards delivering this exceptional capability to the fleet, and performed well during builder’s trials,” Capt. Seth Miller, DDG 51 class program manager in Program Executive Office Ships, said in a statement,
The Pascagoula shipyard is currently also in production on the future Frank E. Petersen Jr (DDG-121), Lenah H. Sutcliffe Higbee (DDG-123) and Jack H. Lucas (DDG-125). DDG-125 will be the first Flight III destroyer.
HII previously launched the Delbert D. Black in September 2017 (Defense Daily, Sept. 11, 2017).
Last March, a commercial vessel collided with a stationary test barge, which itself then was pushed into DDG-119 at the Pascagoula shipyard. According to reports at the time, HII estimated the damage to the destroyer would cost about $31 million.