The Navy has issued contracts to Huntington Ingalls Industries [HII] and General Dynamics [GD] Bath Iron Works for ongoing work at the detailed design for the flight III version of the Arleigh Burke-class (DDG-51) destroyers.
The contracts announced Friday for both builders of the DDG-51s were a combined $26.5 million design services.
The main feature of the next version of the destroyers is the Air Missile Defense Radar, or AMDR.
The Navy is developing the radar to boost air warfare and missile defense capabilities at sea with prime contractor Raytheon [RTN], which beat out rivals Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Northrop Grumman [NOC] for the contract.
AMDR will replace the Lockheed Martin SPY-1D radar system on earlier versions of the ships. The larger AMDR will require more space than its predecessor while also having greater power and cooling requirements.
The Navy expects to start building the first flight III ship in 2016. General Dynamics Bath Iron Works builds the destroyers in Bath, Maine, while Huntington Ingalls Industries makes them at its Ingalls facility in Pascagoula, Miss.