October 22, 2024: The US Navy has found its 9,700-ton Burke class destroyers to be a successful design, so successful that 117 have been built, are on order or planned. This many destroyers of one class has not been seen since the 98 3,500-ton Gearing-class destroyers were built between mid-1945 and 1952. Ships of this class served into the 1980s.

In 2017 the U.S. Navy began working on a plan to extend the life of all Burkes to 45 years and continue to build Burkes. That meant the existing and future Burkes would have their planned service life extended by five to ten years. This is not difficult because the Burkes were a good design that performed well since the first of them entered service in 1991. At the same time, new Burkes were under construction and the last of these won’t enter service until the late 2020s.

The first Burkes will have to retire in 2036 and thirty will be gone by 2046. The navy is hustling to come up with a replacement design that will be affordable and can be built soon enough to replace the retiring Burkes. The destroyer shortage is particularly acute because destroyers are literally the hardest working ships of the navy. They spend 90 days a year on average at sea and are the U.S. warships that spend the most time away from port. While built for that sort of heavy use, all that time at sea makes it difficult to extend the lives of these ships without major refurbishment.

The Burkes were a Cold War era design that was supposed to have been replaced by a radical new design, the Zumwalt DDG-1000 class. That did not work out because it took too long and cost too much to build the new Zumwalts. Meanwhile, it was noted that the Burkes remained a very effective design and a popular model for similar designs elsewhere, especially in East Asia where South Korea, Japan and China have built similar ships. Because of that, in 2009, the U.S. Navy decided to resume Burke production. Up until that point, the Burke class was to end building when the 61st one entered service in 2012. But then the U.S. Navy decided to build only three of the new Zumwalt class ships and continue production of the older DDG-51 Arleigh Burke class destroyers instead. As of 2024, there were 73 Burkes in service with eleven more being built and eight more on order. Ultimately 117 Burkes will be built but some will be retired before the last of the Burkes on order enter service. The first Burke entered service in 1991 and was expected to serve an average of 35 years. Because the Burkes turned out to be one of the best destroyer classes ever built, the navy plans to extend the life of some Burkes to as much as 45 years. Each Burke approaching retirement will be examined to see if it is in shape for extension.

The Burkes were built in four batches, called flights. The 20 Flight 1 ships displaced 8,300 tons. The six Flight 2 ships displaced 8,400 tons, the 45 Flight 2A displaced 9,500 tons while the remainder of the Burke class, all Flight three ships, displaced 9,700 tons. Length of Burkes was between 154 and 155.3 meters. All were 20 meters wide and had a draft of 9.4 meters. Top speed is nearly 60 kilometers an hour. Range on internal fuel is 8,100 kilometers at a cruising speed of 37 kilometers an hour. Crew consists of 23 officers and 300 sailors.

Burks have multiple radar systems to handle air and surface search as well as fire control. There are also several optical sights for short range fire control. Burkes are equipped for anti-submarine warfare with fixed and towed sonars as well as electronic and physical countermeasures for enemy air or torpedo attacks. Armaments consist of one 127mm gun and 96 VLS cells carrying a varying number of anti-aircraft, anti-ship, anti-submarine and land attack missiles. Burkes have six torpedo tubes for anti-submarine torpedoes. Burkes carry two rigid hull speed boats and two MH-60 anti-submarine/transport helicopters.

The Burkes are beleaguered by their responsibility for being widest ranging and most frequently at sea ships of the fleet. The navy found that the Burkes handled all these responsibilities better than any previous class or any similar class built by allied navies. As a result allies often used the Burke as a model for destroyers they were building. With a useful life of nearly half a century, Burkes are going to be around until the 2060s. That’s a lot longer than the late World War 2 Gearing class that served 38 years from 1945 to 1983. The Burkes were designed to last a long time and easily accept upgrades and refurbishments.