Arleigh Burke-Class Destroyer

The Arleigh Burke class is a class of guided-missile destroyers built for the United States Navy, named for the American admiral Arleigh Burke, with its lead ship entering service in 1991 as one of the first surface combatants purpose-built around the Aegis Combat System and its associated phased-array radar for integrated air and missile defense. Armed with a vertical launch system capable of firing a mix of surface-to-air, anti-submarine and land-attack cruise missiles alongside a deck gun, torpedoes and close-in defense weapons, the class combines air defense, anti-submarine warfare and land-attack strike capability in a single hull, a versatility that has made it the backbone surface combatant of the modern American Navy. With dozens of ships built and more still under construction decades after the class first entered service, the Arleigh Burke class is among the longest continuously produced warship classes in United States naval history and has been widely emulated and referenced in the destroyer and frigate designs of other navies.