The Navy’s newest guided missile destroyer, the future USS Daniel Inouye (DDG 118) sailed away from General Dynamics Bath Iron Works shipyard, Oct. 4.
The ship is en route to its homeport, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, for its scheduled commissioning in December.
“Following delivery to the Navy in March 2021, the entire team has continued to prepare DDG 118 for this important readiness milestone,” said Capt. Seth Miller, DDG 51 program manager, Arleigh Burke-class program office, Program Executive Office, Ships. “The fleet will soon be receiving an advanced warship capable of performing the core roles of sea control and power projection.”
The future USS Daniel Inouye is named in honor of Daniel Inouye, who served as a United States Senator for Hawaii from 1963 until his death in 2012. He received the Medal of Honor on June 21, 2000 for his extraordinary heroism in action while serving with the 442nd Infantry Regimental Combat Team in Italy during World War II.
Arleigh Burke-class destroyers are multi-mission ships able to hold targets on land, at sea, in the air, and under water at risk with a suite of sophisticated weapons and sensors.
The other Arleigh Burke-class destroyers currently under construction at Bath Iron Works include: Carl M. Levin (DDG 120), John Basilone (DDG 122), Harvey C. Barnum Jr. (DDG 124), Patrick Gallagher (DDG 127), Louis H. Wilson Jr. (DDG 126) and William Charette (DDG 130), as well as the Zumwalt-class destroyer Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG 1002).
As one of the Defense Department’s largest acquisition organizations, PEO Ships is responsible for executing the development and procurement of all destroyers, amphibious ships, sealift ships, support ships, boats and craft.