The Arleigh Burke class (DDG-51) is the U.S. Navy's main multi-mission destroyer. It is named after Admiral Arleigh Burke, a famous World War II and postwar destroyer leader. The lead ship was commissioned in 1991, and more than 70 have been built since. A full-load Flight IIA ship displaces roughly 9,700 tons and is about 505 feet (154 m) long, with a crew of around 300. It carries the Aegis combat system with a radar that tracks many targets at once, a vertical launch system for missiles such as the SM-2, SM-6 and Tomahawk, anti-submarine torpedoes and a 5-inch gun. Its job is to defend carrier groups against aircraft, missiles, submarines and surface ships, and to strike targets on land.
The name is older than the ship. In the 1890s, navies built 'torpedo boat destroyers' to hunt the small, fast torpedo boats of the day. The name shortened to 'destroyer' over time and kept its meaning of a fast escort ship.
A battleship is a different class: the heaviest-armored, big-gun capital ship of the early 20th century, such as the Iowa class. The U.S. Navy's last battleships left service in the early 1990s, and the Navy has not built one since. Ship types today are named by size and mission, and a 9,700-ton ship with missiles and radar fits the destroyer role, not the battleship one. The Arleigh Burke class is larger than the destroyers of World War II, which is why some people find the label surprising.
If you want to see one in action, the news this week includes a report that Iran reportedly targeted an Arleigh Burke destroyer in the Arabian Sea. That is an unconfirmed claim from an X post, so see the conversation about it for the discussion.
Also discussed here:
- Iran has reportedly targeted a U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke-class destro…
