The U.S. Navy has formally accepted its 78th Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, USS Ted Stevens (DDG 128), following delivery from HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding facility.
The handover marks the ship’s official transition from the builder to operational service and comes after the successful completion of dockside and sea trials conducted to verify performance, systems integration, and overall readiness ahead of fleet deployment.
USS Ted Stevens is the third destroyer in the Arleigh Burke program to feature the Flight III configuration, incorporating the AN/SPY-6(V)1 Air and Missile Defense Radar and the Aegis Baseline 10 combat system. This advanced configuration is designed to counter a broad spectrum of contemporary aerial, surface, and ballistic missile threats.
The ship is named in honor of the late Ted Stevens, a longtime Alaskan senator and the longest-serving Republican in U.S. Senate history.
HII currently has seven additional Arleigh Burke-class destroyers under construction or in various stages of production. With the delivery of Ted Stevens, the company has now supplied 36 ships to the U.S. Navy under the program.
Depending on the flight variant, Arleigh Burke-class destroyers measure between 505 and 510 feet in length. Powered by three Allison T56 generators, the class is capable of speeds exceeding 30 knots and has an operational range of approximately 4,400 nautical miles.
In terms of combat capability, the destroyer is armed with naval guns, missiles, torpedoes, machine guns, electronic warfare systems, and decoy countermeasures. Each ship typically carries a crew of about 300 personnel and can operate a naval helicopter and rigid-hull inflatable boats for maritime operations.
