The future USS John Finn (DDG-113), a DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, completed its first round of sea trials Aug. 30 after spending three days in the Gulf of Mexico for tests of its main propulsion system and other systems.
“John Finn successfully conducted a full power run and demonstrated key communication, damage control and navigation systems, as well as various hull, mechanical, electrical and propulsion applications,” Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) said in a news release Sept. 2.
Powered by four gas turbine engines, the DDG-113 is the first new-construction Arleigh Burke-class ship to go to sea in over four years, NAVSEA said. The Navy restarted the DDG-51 production program in 2010.
The 509-foot-long ship, built by Huntington Ingalls Industries [HII] Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., will undergo the second of three builder’s trials in September. The Navy is requiring three sea trials as part of the restart.
“This extra set of trials will ensure the ship will get a lot of at-sea time in preparation for her delivery later this year,” said George Jones, Ingalls’ vice president of operations.
Ingalls is producing four other DDG-51s and is under contract to build two more. General Dynamics [GD] Bath Iron Works in Maine, meanwhile, is building four DDG-51s and has three more in the pipeline.