U.S. Navy’s Frank E. Petersen Jr. Arleigh Burke-Class Destroyer Completes Builder’s Trials

Huntington Ingalls Industries’ (HII) Ingalls Shipbuilding division said today the U.S. Navy’s guided missile destroyer Frank E. Petersen Jr. (DDG 121) completed builder’s trials.

The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer spent three days in the Gulf of Mexico testing the ship’s combat system, which included firing a missile.

DDG 121 is named for Frank E. Petersen Jr., who was the U.S. Marine Corps’ first African American aviator and general officer. After entering the Naval Aviation Cadet Program in 1950, Petersen would go on to fly more than 350 combat missions during the Korean and Vietnam wars.

Ingalls has delivered 32 destroyers to the Navy and currently has four more under construction including Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee (DDG 123), Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125), Ted Stevens (DDG 128) and Jeremiah Denton (DDG 129).

Arleigh Burke-class destroyers are highly capable, multi-mission ships and can conduct a variety of operations, from peacetime presence and crisis management, to sea control and power projection — all in support of the United States military strategy. The guided missile destroyers are capable of simultaneously fighting air, surface and subsurface battles.