Building Burke Block IIIs?

Inside the Navy reporter Zachary M. Peterson has an article out that also ran in Fridays CHINFO Clips called Young Defends DDG-1000, Cites Need For Ship In The Littorals. Subscription only link. Very interesting bit here.

Young argued the Navy would need to build more robust DDG-51s, with greater radar capabilities.

“The Navy doesn't want to build more straight DDG-51s,” he said. “They would actually like to have a ship that has more radar and other features. That could lead you to want to plug a DDG-51, [but] we've not had good success plugging-- cutting ships in half and extending their length -- and putting a new radar on.”

Great. Now the Navy will buy more Burkes, but instead of the known price of the Flight IIA, the Navy wants to make them bigger and pile new stuff on.

Sounds to us like the Navy is dusting off the plans for the Burke Flight IIIs.