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The U.S. Navy says it has wrapped up major combat-system modernizations on two Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers, USS Chung-Hoon (DDG 93) and USS James E. Williams (DDG 95), a step the service describes as a significant boost to the fleet’s offensive and defensive punch in an Integrated Air and Missile Defense Environment.
The work, announced from Washington, D.C., advances the Navy’s effort to keep its large surface combatants at the forefront of high-end warfare as they operate alongside newer Flight III destroyers and prepare for the next-generation DDG(X) program. While the service did not specify individual systems in the announcement, destroyer modernizations of this kind typically cover upgrades to the Aegis combat system software and processors, sensors and radar integration, electronic warfare suites, communications and networking, and hull, mechanical and electrical reliability improvements.
Taken together, such packages are intended to sharpen area air defense, ballistic missile defense, long-range strike, and cooperative target engagement in contested environments, while hardening ships against modern electronic and cyber threats. They also aim to reduce maintenance burdens and extend service life for hulls commissioned in the mid-2000s, keeping them viable contributors to Carrier Strike Groups and independent surface action groups through the decade.
The Navy has pursued a rolling series of modernization availabilities across the Arleigh Burke class, coupling software-centric advances to incremental hardware refreshes as industrial capacity and funding allow. That approach lets the fleet field new capabilities across multiple hulls more quickly than waiting for wholesale replacements, and aligns with joint-service concepts that depend on distributed sensors, resilient networks, and long-range weapons.
Following completion of their shipyard periods, Chung-Hoon and James E. Williams will move through post-availability trials, crew training and combat certification before returning to full operational tasking. The ships are multi-mission platforms designed for anti-air, anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare, as well as land-attack strike.
The modernization effort comes as the Navy balances demand for forward presence with tight maintenance windows and competition for skilled labor in public and private shipyards. By pushing upgraded IAMD capabilities deeper into the fleet, the service is positioning more destroyers to contribute to regional air and missile defense architectures and to joint force operations in the Pacific, Europe and the Middle East.
