The future USS Jason Dunham (DDG 109), the 58th ship of the Arleigh Burke-class, successfully completed a combined builder's and acceptance "super trial" May 20, after spending four days at sea operating in the Atlantic Ocean.

Because of the maturity of the class, the Navy holds only one round of trials on each ship prior to delivery, instead of separate builder's and acceptance trials.  This "super trial" requires less time, fuel and manpower than the typical method.

During the trial, Bath Iron Works and the U.S. Navy's Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV) tested the ship's weapons, communications, and propulsion systems as well as conducting several other inspections including habitability, water purification and food preparation.

"DDG 109 performed extremely well for INSURV and proved that the DDG 51 class continues to meet the Navy's expectations in both cost and schedule performance,” said Capt. Pete Lyle, DDG 51 class program manager for the Navy's Program Executive Office (PEO) Ships. "The success of these trials illustrates the cost and schedule advantages realized with a program well into serial production."

The DDG 51 class ship is a multi-mission guided missile destroyer designed to operate in multi-threat air, surface and subsurface threat environments. The future USS Jason Dunham is expected to deliver this summer, and to be officially commissioned in November.