GD Bath Iron Works lays keel of third stealth destroyer

JANUARY 31, 2017 — General Dynamics Bath Iron Works shipyard yesterday celebrated the keel laying of the future USS Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG 1002), the third of the three Zumwalt-class stealth destroyers ordered by the Navy.

The ship is named in honor of President Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president of the United States.

President Johnson’s daughters, Lynda Johnson Robb and Luci Baines Johnson, are the ship sponsors. A special steel plate containing the initials of the sisters was prepared for the ceremony. Assisted by Timothy Trask, a 30-year Bath Iron Works welder, the sponsors authenticated the laying of the keel by striking welding arcs onto the steel plate.

The DDG 1002 is more than half completed and the keel unit, a 4,000-ton module, was moved onto the building ways from the shipyard’s Ultra Hall construction facility earlier this winter, signifying the start of hull integration and the pre-cursor to integration, test and trials.