Bath Iron Works lays keel of DDG 116
General Dynamics Bath Iron Works held a keel-laying ceremony for the Thomas Hudner (DDG 116), the company’s 36th Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer. The ship is named for Captain Thomas Hudner Jr., U.S. Navy (ret.), a Korean War aviator and Medal of Honor recipient, the shipbuilder said in a press release.
The keel unit is the 3,000-ton, heavily outfitted mid-section of the ship which contains its main machinery spaces, and is the “heart” of the ship. The unit is roughly a third of the entire ship, and was recently moved from the shipyard’s Ultra Hall construction facility onto the building ways.
The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer is a multi-mission combatant that offers defense against a wide range of threats, including ballistic missiles. It operates in support of carrier battle groups, surface action groups, amphibious groups and replenishment groups, providing a complete array of anti-submarine (ASW), anti-air and anti-surface capabilities. Designed for survivability, the ships incorporate all-steel construction and have gas turbine propulsion. The combination of the ships’ AEGIS combat system, the Vertical Launching System, an advanced ASW system, two embarked SH-60 helicopters, advanced anti-aircraft missiles and Tomahawk anti-ship and land-attack missiles make the Arleigh Burke class one of the most powerful surface combatants ever put to sea.
Bath Iron Works (BIW) is a major American shipyard located on the Kennebec River in Bath, Maine, United States. Since its founding in 1884 (as Bath Iron Works, Limited), BIW has built private, commercial and military vessels, largerly for the US Navy. The shipyard builds or designs battleships, frigates, cruisers and destroyers. Since 1995, Bath Iron Works has been a subsidiary of General Dynamics, the fifth-largest defense contractor in the world (as of 2008). Bath Iron Works currently employs approximately 6,000 people.
