US shipbuilder General Dynamics Bath Iron Works (GDBIW) launched the 70th Arleigh Burke-class destroyer for the US Navy over the last weekend.
The future USS Carl M. Levin (DDG 120) was placed into a dry dock for translation from the company’s land level transfer facility to the Kennebec River in a process that takes almost two days to complete.
GDBIW launched Carl M. Levin a little over two years after laying the keel for the ship in February 2019.
Now that it has been launched, it will have to undergo further outfitting and pass a series of trials before being handed over to the navy.
The ship’s namesake served in the US Senate for 36 years from 1979-2015. As the longest serving senator in Michigan state history, Levin became a supporter of the armed services through his work and leadership as Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Armed Services.
DDG 120 will be Flight IIA configuration destroyer, featuring the Aegis Baseline 9 Combat System which includes Integrated Air and Missile Defense capability.
The shipyard is also in production on the future Arleigh Burke-class destroyers John Basilone (DDG 122), Harvey C. Barnum (DDG 124), Patrick Gallagher (DDG 127), and Flight III ships, Louis H. Wilson, Jr. (DDG 126), and William Charette (DDG 130), as well as the future Zumwalt-class destroyer, Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG 1002).
