The damaged guided-missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) has left the U.S. naval base in Yokosuka, Japan on Friday to begin the trip to the U.S. Gulf Coast for more than a year of repairs.
Fitzgerald was towed from Yokosuka and is being loaded aboard the heavy lift transport Transshelf. The process is expected to take several days.
“In the months prior to her departure from Yokosuka, technicians and shipbuilders at Ship Repair Facility Yokosuka made significant progress in preparing the ship for the journey, including dewatering, defueling, hull and superstructure repairs, and placing key systems in layup maintenance,” read a statement from U.S. 7th Fleet.
“In October, she was moved from dry dock to a pier side location in anticipation of the move.”
Fitzgerald has been at Yokosuka since June 17, following a fatal collision with the merchant ship ACX Crystal off the coast of Japan. Seven sailors were killed.
The cost of the repairs is estimated at about $367 million, according to a Navy cost estimate obtained by USNI News.
Guided missile USS John McCain (DDG-56) – which suffered its own fatal collision in August that killed ten sailors — has been in the Philippines for more than a month after it developed a crack in the hull during its heavy-lift transit to Yokosuka.
