On Saturday in Bath, Maine, Irene Hirano Inouye will shatter a bottle of champagne across the bow of a new $1.5 billion destroyer while stating, “I christen thee United States ship Daniel Inouye.”
With that, the 509-foot Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer will mark the traditional transition from construction to comprehensive tests and trials — and an expected 2020 arrival at its home port in Hawaii.
The warship honors World War II Medal of Honor recipient and longtime U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye — carrying the “Go for Broke” motto of the mostly Japanese-American 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
“The future USS Daniel Inouye will serve for decades as a reminder of Sen. Inouye’s service to our nation and his unwavering support of a strong Navy and Marine Corps team,” Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer said in a news release. “This ship honors not only his service but the service of our shipbuilders who help make ours the greatest Navy and Marine Corps team in the world.”
U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, a Hawaii Democrat, will deliver the christening ceremony’s principal address. Irene Hirano Inouye, wife of the late senator, is the ship’s sponsor.
The christening ceremony will be streamed live at 10 a.m. eastern time (4 a.m. Hawaii time) at livestream.com/accounts/7613748/events/8697757.
The Daniel Inouye will be the 68th Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, and is one of 21 ships currently under contract for the DDG 51 ship-building program.
The ship, with a displacement of 9,496 tons, is configured as a Flight IIA destroyer, which enables power projection and delivers quick reaction time, high firepower, and increased electronic countermeasures capability for anti-air warfare, the Navy said.
Inouye lost his right arm attacking multiple German machine gun positions in Italy in 1945 — continuing to fight even after he was severely wounded. He received the Medal of Honor on June 21, 2000, for his extraordinary heroism.
He went on to become one of the most powerful members of the U.S. Senate, serving in the upper chamber since 1963. Inouye died in late 2012.
In 2013 then-Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced that a new destroyer would be named after Inouye, whom he called “a true American hero.”
Shipbuilder General Dynamics Bath Iron Works started fabrication on the Daniel Inouye in October 2014. The vessel was originally expected to be delivered to the Navy late last year.
But the construction schedule was delayed in part due to the complexity of another type of new warship — the Zumwalt-class destroyer.