The Navy said Thursday it will extend the service lives of four Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers past their original planned lives of 35 years.
USS Ramage (DDG-61) and Benfold (DDG-65) will be extended by five years through fiscal years 2035 and 2036, respectively, while USS Mitscher (DDG-57) and Milius (DDG-69) will be extended for four years each, to FY 2034 and 2035, respectively.
The Navy said it was feasible to extend these destroyers because each one was kept in good material condition by their crews and adhered to lifecycle maintenance plans.
Moreover, they have already received Aegis baseline nine upgrades via the DDG Modernization program, which covered “comprehensive mid-life modernization” that has ensured “they have the right systems to remain capable and reliable to the end of their service life”
Previously, the Navy extended the service life of the USS Arleigh Burke (DDG-51) by five years to FY ‘31 for a 40-year life (Defense Daily, March 17).
Rear Adm. Fred Pyle, director of Surface Warfare (N96) and head of the division in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, argued this extension demonstrates “the Navy’s commitment to ensuring the surface fleet has the right capability and capacity. Adding 23 years of service life cumulatively over the last six months is a significant investment in surface warfare.”
Pyle said this lines up with statements Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro made to Congress during FY ‘24 posture hearings when he committed to “analyze service life on a hull-by-hull basis and extend the correct ships in order to be good stewards of resources invested in the U.S. Navy by the American people.”
In this specific case, Pyle said these destroyers provide a needed capability and capacity to commanders “in an affordable manner maximizing the Navy’s targeted return on investment for these ships.”
He also explained two of the ships are getting four more years rather than five based on where their lifecycle maintenance schedules happen to line up.
“Extending Mitscher and Milius by an additional year to five years would require each ship to spend a year of that extension in a docking availability, which would not be a prudent use of resources entrusted to the Navy.”
The Navy currently has 73 destroyers and said it will keep evaluating the service life based on three factors: combat relevance, reliability data and material condition.