The guided-missile destroyer named for the late Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) commissioned in Baltimore, Md., on Saturday.
USS Carl Levin (DDG-120) is one of the last Flight IIA variants of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and delivered to the Navy in January, USNI News previously reported.
“This ship before you and our entire naval fleet supports not just the strike force, but our entire nation by guaranteeing our unencumbered access to a free and open maritime commons and serves as the lifeblood of our economy,” Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro said in remarks on Saturday.
While in the Senate, Levin was a long-serving chair and ranking member of the Senate Armed Service Committee. He retired from Congress in 2015 and died in 2021
“Senator Levin lived a life of service with integrity, and his example inspires us as we commission this ship with this crew today,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday said in a speech at the ceremony.
“The men and the women of the USS Carl Levin represent some of the best and the brightest in our Navy. They are ready. They are prepared to go into harm’s way if required and they will carry out the orders of our nation.”
The ship, built at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works shipyard in Maine, began construction in 2016 after a contract was awarded in 2014.
BIW has been working through a construction backlog at the Maine yard that was made worse during the manufacturing delays due to the COVID-19 work stoppages.
The yard last delivered USS Daniel Inouye (DDG-118) in March of 2021 and the destroyer was commissioned later that year.
BIW has several Flight IIAs and Flight III Arleigh Burke destroyers under construction at its yard in Bath. Those include future destroyers Harvey C. Barnum Jr. (DDG-124), John Basilone (DDG-122), Patrick Gallagher (DDG-127), Quentin Walsh (DDG-132), William Charette (DDG-130) and Louis H. Wilson Jr. (DDG-126), according to Naval Sea Systems Command.
Levin will be based in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
