The U.S. Navy accepted USS Chung-Hoon (DDG 93) and USS James E. Williams (DDG 95) ahead of schedule, delivering two more Arleigh Burke-class destroyers equipped with the AN/SLQ-32(V)7 Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP) Block 3 electronic attack suite under the DDG Modernization 2.0 program.
Both ships became the second and third Flight IIA destroyers with SEWIP Block 3, following USS Pinckney (DDG 91).
General Dynamics NASSCO led both overhauls across its coastal facilities, with the Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center (MARMC) supervising the Norfolk-based Williams and the Southwest Regional Maintenance Center (SWRMC) overseeing the San Diego-based Chung-Hoon.
“This destroyer modernization effort is the cornerstone of increasing service life and delivering decisive combat power to the U.S. Navy via our Flight IIA destroyers,” Capt. Tim Moore, program manager for DDG Modernization 2.0, said in a Navy media release. “We focused on opportunities to shift milestones supporting acquisition, planning and execution left to provide these capabilities to the operators sooner.”
SEWIP Block 3, built by Northrop Grumman, replaces the legacy SLQ-32 threat warning receiver with active electronically scanned array transmitters that can detect and jam multiple anti-ship missile seekers simultaneously, a capability upgrade that required structural additions to both sides of each ship’s superstructure.
USS James E. Williams (DDG 95) Arleigh Burke-class Flight IIA/partial DDG MOD 2.0 guided missile destroyer leaving Norfolk, Virginia – June 16, 2026 SRC: X-@johnmorgan726 pic.twitter.com/MakyhYEcXC
— WarshipCam (@WarshipCam) June 16, 2026
The deliveries add to a track record Vice Adm. John Gumbleton described at the Combined Naval Event in 2025. “In [the new] construct, we have been on time 11 of 12 times, and the one outlier was two weeks late,” he said. “We’ve made the conscious decision to prioritize predictability over deferring modernization.”
In April 2026, the Navy awarded Northrop Grumman a $334.4 million contract modification for nine additional SEWIP Block 3 systems, including the first for a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, putting the company on contract for as many as 24 units valued at up to $783 million. USS Halsey (DDG 97) is next in the modernization sequence.
