BATH (AP) — An enormous and technology-laden warship that’s taking shape at Maine’s Bath Iron Works is due to be christened in October.

The shipyard said the event will be held on Oct. 19 for the Zumwalt, first of a new class of destroyers that’s the largest ever built for the U.S. Navy.

Once derided for its expense, at more than $3 billion apiece, the Navy now views the three 600-foot-long ships it plans to build as central to its China strategy, as well as a platform for new technologies.

The big ships feature a new wave-piercing hull, composite deckhouse, electric drive propulsion, advanced sonar, missiles and powerful guns that fire rocket-propelled warheads as far as 100 miles. The Navy said it also could be a platform for futuristic electromagnetic “railguns.”