Latest Arleigh Burke destroyer commissioned

The US Navy’s newest Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, DDG 122, has been commissioned as the USS John Basilone.

Basilone was the only enlisted Marine in World War II to earn both the Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross, and DDG 122 will be the second vessel to bear his name.

DDG 122 will also be the 74th ship of its class, and one of the last three vessels to fall within the Flight IIA group of the Arleigh Burke-class. Only the Harvey C. Barnum Jr. (DDG 124) and the Patrick Gallagher (DDG 127) remain to be commissioned in the flight, both of them out of the General Dynamics Bath Iron Works (BIW), like the John Basilone.

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Based on the contract price for the Harvey C. Barnum Jr, the John Basilone will cost the US Navy US$644.3 million, and while the John Basilone is just being commissioned, significantly earlier ships in the flight have already had their mid-life upgrades, and some earlier generation Arleigh Burke-class vessels have even had work to extend their operating lives up to around the 45-year mark.

Admiral Lisa Franchetti, chief of naval operations for the US Navy, said those life extensions were in line with her NAVPLAN which directs the Navy to “get more ready players on the field”.

The commissioning of the John Basilone will ultimately help with the hard numbers of the US Arleigh Burke-class fleet, while the refurbishments and life extensions of earlier vessels in the class are designed to help the US Navy fight in a world of heightened threat across multiple theatres.

Related Equipment in Defence Insight

Arleigh Burke Class (Flight IIA)