A key supplier to the U.S. Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyer program has expanded its manufacturing capacity, increasing production of critical power-generation systems used aboard the Navy’s newest Flight III warships.

General Tool Company (GTC) announced that it has completed a major expansion of its Evendale, Ohio, manufacturing facility to boost production of the Rolls-Royce AG9160RF gas turbine generator set. The move increases output capacity from supporting two destroyers annually to three, helping meet growing demand for the Navy’s Flight III DDG-51 program.

The expansion has added 47 jobs so far and is expected to generate approximately $4.1 million in payroll, according to the company. While the announcement may appear to focus on a single industrial component, the AG9160RF plays a critical role aboard some of the Navy’s most advanced surface combatants.

Powering the next generation of destroyers

The AG9160RF is the standard generator set used on Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, the latest and most capable version of the Navy’s long-running DDG-51 program. Each ship carries three of the generators to provide electrical power for sensors, combat systems, communications equipment, and ship operations.

The system was specifically developed as a higher-voltage, higher-output successor to the AG9140 generator used on earlier destroyers. Rolls-Royce says the AG9160RF was selected for Flight III ships to meet the increasing power demands of modern naval combat systems. One of the biggest power consumers aboard the new destroyers is the AN/SPY-6 Air and Missile Defense Radar.

The SPY-6 is a next-generation active electronically scanned array radar capable of detecting and tracking aircraft, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, drones, and other threats at much greater sensitivity than previous systems. According to Navy and industry information, accommodating the radar required substantial upgrades to both electrical generation and cooling capacity aboard Flight III ships.

In simple terms, the new generators help provide the electrical support needed to operate one of the most powerful radar systems ever installed on a U.S. destroyer.

Why these ships matter

The Arleigh Burke class remains the key asset of the U.S. Navy’s surface fleet more than three decades after the first ship entered service. Flight III destroyers represent the latest evolution of the class and are designed to strengthen air defense, ballistic missile defense, and fleet protection capabilities. 

The ships are being built by General Dynamics Bath Iron Works and Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Ingalls Shipbuilding division. Their importance has become increasingly visible as U.S. destroyers have been deployed in the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, Mediterranean, and Indo-Pacific regions, where missile and drone threats have become a growing operational concern. 

Advanced radar and air-defense capabilities have become essential as naval forces face increasingly challenging aerial threats.

Industrial capacity becomes a strategic issue

The facility expansion also highlights a broader issue facing the U.S. defense sector. Industrial capacity. In recent years, Pentagon officials and lawmakers have repeatedly emphasized the need to strengthen the naval industrial base as shipbuilding programs expand and geopolitical competition intensifies.

As the exclusive manufacturing and integration partner for the AG9160RF product line, General Tool Company occupies a small but important position within that supply chain. Increasing production capacity by even a single ship per year may appear modest, but for specialized naval systems with limited suppliers, such increases can help reduce bottlenecks and support long-term fleet modernization efforts.

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