Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

The Arleigh Burke class is a United States Navy class of guided-missile destroyers built around the Aegis Combat System and the SPY-1D radar. It was developed as a more affordable supplement to the Ticonderoga-class cruisers and is named for Arleigh Burke, a destroyer admiral of the Second World War and later Chief of Naval Operations. The multimission ships handle antiaircraft warfare, Tomahawk land strikes, antisubmarine warfare and antisurface warfare, and with later upgrades also act as ballistic missile defence platforms. The lead ship was commissioned on 4 July 1991. As of April 2026, 75 ships are active, making it the most numerous class of warships in the Navy, and it has the longest production run of any Navy surface combatant. Bath Iron Works won the contract for the first ship in 1985.