Guided-missile destroyer John Basilone (DDG-122) completed its Navy acceptance trails ahead of delivery to the service, shipbuilder General Dynamics Bath Iron Works.
On May 23, Arleigh Burke-class Flight IIA destroyer completed its final set of acceptance trials in the Atlantic with the Navy Board of Inspection and Survey embarked and returned to the Maine shipyard.
“During acceptance trials, a Bath Iron Works crew operates the ship and demonstrates its hull, mechanical and electrical systems perform as expected. The INSURV team determines whether the ship’s systems are operational prior to the Navy taking delivery,” reads the statement from BIW.
Basilone is one of the last Flight IIA configurations of the Burke class, outfitted with the older AN/SPY-1D(v) air search radars before the Navy will transition to the Flight III destroyers that are built around the AN/SPY-6 air and missile defense radar.
The destroyer is named for Marine Gunnery Sgt. Basilone was awarded the Medal of Honor following actions during the Battle of Guadalcanal during World War II. He died in combat during the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. He was the namesake for the former Gearing-class destroyer USS Basilone (DD-824) that was decommissioned in 1977.
The current destroyer is part of a 2013 multi-year contract award between the Navy, BIW and HII Ingalls Shipbuilding.
The commissioning for the destroyer is planned for later this year.
In addition to Basilone, Bath has Flight IIA Arleigh Burke-class destroyers Harvey C. Barnum Jr. (DDG-124) and Patrick Gallagher (DDG 127) and the Flight III configuration destroyers Louis H. Wilson Jr. (DDG-126), William Charette (DDG-130), Quentin Walsh (DDG-132) and John E. Kilmer (DDG-134).
