The U.S. Navy’s newest Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Harvey C. Barnum Jr. has departed the yard where she was built ahead of her imminent commissioning.
The guided missile destroyer will be commissioned in early April and is set to be based at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia.
Her keel was laid down in April 2021 and after a construction programme at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works (GDBIW) lasting almost five years she was officially delivered to the U.S. Navy in November 2025. She set sail from the GDBIW yard in Bath, Maine, last week.
The ship, named after a Vietnam War Medal of Honor recipient, cost an estimated $644 million and is one of the final Flight IIA Arleigh Burke-class variants.
General Dynamics Bath Iron Works has seven additional future Arleigh Burke-class destroyers under construction, including one more Flight IIA ship, USS Patrick Gallagher.
The six Flight III warships currently being built at the yard are: Louis H. Wilson Jr.;William Charette; Quentin Walsh; John E. Kilmer; Richard G. Lugar; and J. William Middendorf.
The Flight III variants are fitted with RTX’s SPY-6 Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) system to enable them to simultaneously perform anti-air warfare (AAW) and ballistic missile defence (BMD).
- You can read more details about the ship on the U.S. Navy website