The 900-ton deckhouse for the USS Michael Monsoor (DDG 1001) will house the ship's bridge, radars, antennae and intake/exhaust systems and is designed to provide a small radar cross-section.
Ingalls built and delivered the composite deckhouse and hangar for DDGs 1000 and 1001 at its Composite Center of Excellence in Gulfport. Made almost exclusively using cored composite construction processes, the deckhouse and hangar employ carbon fibre materials and balsa wood cores. The composite deckhouse reduces maintenance cost over the life span of the ship due to its corrosion resistance in the marine environment.
The deckhouse will be shipped to General Dynamics Bath Iron Works in Maine to be integrated onto the steel hull of DDG 1001.
Zumwalt-class destroyers are the US Navy's next-generation guided-missile destroyer. The first Zumwalt destroyer (DDG 1000, USS Zumwalt) was launched in 2013.
- In the fourth quarter of 2014 Ingalls announced its plan to close the Gulfport facility as a result of the Navy's decision to proceed with a steel deckhouse on the third and final Zuwalt destroyer (DDG-1002, USS Lyndon B. Johnson), instead of a composite deckhouse.
