Future USS Delbert D. Black Completes Builders Trials

MarineLink February 25, 2020

The future USS Delbert D. Black (DDG 119) (Photo: U.S. Navy)

The future USS Delbert D. Black (DDG 119) completed builder’s trials February 22 after spending three days underway in the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. Navy said. The trials were conducted by the shipbuilder, Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), Ingalls Shipbuilding Division.

The ship was previously underway for Alpha trials in December, and will be underway again in March for acceptance trials, which will be conducted by the U.S. Navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey.

“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,” said Capt. Seth Miller, DDG 51 class program manager, Program Executive Office (PEO) Ships. “This ship continues the proud Aegis shipbuilding legacy and will provide the Navy with a 21st century fighting edge.”

Delbert D. Black, launched in September 2017, is configured as a Flight IIA destroyer, which enables power projection, forward presence and escort operations at sea in support of Low Intensity Conflict/Coastal and Littoral Offshore Warfare as well as open ocean conflict. DDG 119 will be equipped with the Navy’s Aegis Combat System, the world’s foremost integrated naval weapon.

Delbert D. Black (DDG 119) was originally scheduled to be commissioned in 2019, but an allision at the shipyard in March 2019 caused scheduling delays, minor injuries and more than $30 million in damage to the new destroyer, which was still under construction at the time. A heavy lift ship delivering a floating dry dock to Ingalls Shipbuilding made contact with a test barge that was berthed alongside the destroyer and supporting electrical work aboard the destroyer, which then made contact with the destroyer.

HII’s Pascagoula, Miss. shipyard is also currently in production on the future destroyers Frank E. Petersen Jr (DDG 121), Lenah H. Sutcliffe Higbee (DDG 123) and Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125), the first ship to be built in the Flight III configuration.