US Navy christens 5th Flight III destroyer USS William Charette at Bath Iron Works in Maine.

On August 1, 2026, the U.S. Navy christened the future USS William Charette (DDG 130) at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine. As the shipyard's second Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, the vessel transitions into system activation and integration to expand integrated air and missile defense capabilities for carrier strike groups. The upgraded Flight III design incorporates 12 MW of electrical generation capacity to power the advanced AN/SPY-6(V)1 active electronically scanned array radar.

The USS William Charette (DDG 130) features a 9,700 long ton displacement, a 33 percent electrical power increase via three 4 MW AG9160 generators, and the Aegis Baseline 10 combat system paired with 96 Mk 41 vertical launching system cells. Representing the 43rd Arleigh Burke-class destroyer constructed at Bath Iron Works, the vessel enters post-christening launch, combat system activation, and sea trials before formal fleet commissioning.

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The future USS William Charette (DDG 130) is the second Flight III destroyer completed by Bath Iron Works, the 43rd Arleigh Burke-class destroyer built at the yard, and one of the newest hulls in a program that had delivered 75 ships by mid-2026. (Picture source: BIW)

On August 1, 2026, the U.S. Navy christened the future USS William Charette (DDG 130) at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, advancing the fifth Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyer toward launch, fitting out, trials, and eventual commissioning. The DDG 130 is the second Flight III destroyer built by Bath Iron Works and the 43rd Arleigh Burke-class destroyer produced at the yard since the program entered construction in 1988. The ship is named after Master Chief Hospital Corpsman William Richard Charette, who received the Medal of Honor for actions during the Battle for Outpost Vegas on March 27, 1953. By July 2026, the U.S. Navy counted 75 Arleigh Burke destroyers delivered, with 24 additional units planned, under contract, or in various stages of construction.

The DDG 130 is not yet a commissioned warship, and its christening marks only the transition from hull assembly to a sequence that still includes launch, equipment installation, combat system activation, harbor trials, builder’s trials, acceptance trials, US Navy delivery and commissioning. Approximately 1,500 people attended the christening ceremony inside the Bath Iron Works dry dock, including Navy officials, Maine political leaders, shipyard personnel and members of the Charette family. Kathryn Charette Donovan, one of William Charette’s daughters, served as principal sponsor and broke bottles of sparkling wine against the bow on behalf of her sisters and co-sponsors Margaret Ann Henderson and Laura Charette Bennett.

Charette’s granddaughters Michelle Charette and Sara Charette Wright participated as maid and matron of honor. Acting Secretary of the US Navy Hung Cao delivered the principal address, joined by Maine Governor Janet Mills, Senators Susan Collins and Angus King, Rear Admiral Matthew Case, retired Marine Colonel and Medal of Honor recipient Harvey C. Barnum Jr., Bath Iron Works President Charles F. Krugh and Michael Charette, the namesake’s son. Construction from initial fabrication to christening required close to six years, and the ship was scheduled to launch after the ceremony. Bath Iron Works must still complete remaining structural work, activate shipboard systems, correct potential deficiencies found during future testing, and support the ship through formal acceptance.

The yard will also retain a long-term role through lifecycle engineering and maintenance support after the ship enters service. Bath’s active Arleigh Burke destroyer production line includes USS Louis H. Wilson Jr. (DDG 126), USS William Charette (DDG 130), USS Quentin Walsh (DDG 132), USS John E. Kilmer (DDG 134), USS Richard G. Lugar (DDG 136), USS J. William Middendorf (DDG 138) and USS Thomas G. Kelley (DDG 140). Ingalls Shipbuilding, for its part, is responsible for USS Ted Stevens (DDG 128), USS Jeremiah Denton (DDG 129), USS George M. Neal (DDG 131), USS Sam Nunn (DDG 133), and USS Thad Cochran (DDG 135). This creates a continuous sequence of steel cutting, block construction, erection, machinery installation, cabling, combat system integration, and testing across more than a dozen ships.

It also divides national destroyer production between two yards, reducing the risk that a major disruption at one facility would stop all destroyer output. The model does not eliminate production constraints, because both yards compete for welders, pipefitters, electricians, engineers and suppliers of propulsion, radar, weapons and electronics. Annual delivery capacity has generally remained limited to one or two destroyers, meaning authorization of additional ships does not immediately translate into fleet growth. The USS William Charette therefore enters a production system with a large contractual backlog but limited ability to increase output quickly. Flight III destroyers retain the 509.5 ft (155.3 m) length and 66 ft (20 m) beam of Flight IIA, but the internal configuration was redesigned to support a radar and combat system that place substantially greater demands on electrical power and cooling.

Flight IIA destroyers use three AG9140 generators rated at 3 MW each, giving 9 MW of installed electrical generation. The Flight III replaces them with three AG9160 generators rated at 4 MW each, raising installed generation to 12 MW, a 33% increase. That additional 3 MW supports the AN/SPY-6(V)1 radar, Aegis Baseline 10 processing equipment, cooling pumps, chilled-water systems and other electronic loads that must operate continuously during air and ballistic missile defense missions. The increase required changes to switchboards, power distribution, machinery spaces, auxiliary equipment and combat system compartments rather than a simple generator replacement. Full-load displacement rises from 9,500 long tons for Flight IIA to 9,700 long tons for Flight III, an increase of 200 long tons.

Propulsion remains based on four General Electric LM2500 gas turbines driving two shafts, with total output above 100,000 shaft horsepower and a maximum speed exceeding 30 knots. Crew strength rises from 329 on Flight IIA to 359 on Flight III, including 41 officers, 27 chief petty officers, and 291 enlisted sailors. The AN/SPY-6(V)1 Air and Missile Defense Radar is the key system aboard the USS William Charette. It replaces the AN/SPY-1D and SPY-1D(V) passive electronically scanned array radars installed on earlier Arleigh Burke destroyers and uses four fixed active electronically scanned arrays built from 37 Radar Module Assemblies. Gallium-nitride transmit and receive modules improve sensitivity, target discrimination, reliability and track capacity against ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, aircraft, unmanned systems and low-signature targets.

The Aegis Baseline 10 integrates anti-air warfare and ballistic missile defense into one combat architecture, allowing the ship to maintain both mission sets at the same time. The destroyer retains 96 Mk 41 Vertical Launching System (VLS) cells, with 32 cells forward and 64 aft, the same total used by Flight IIA destroyers. Those cells can carry SM-2, SM-3, SM-6, Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM), Tomahawk and RUM-139 Vertical Launch ASROC. Mission planning therefore requires a trade between ballistic missile defense, area air defense, local air defense, land attack, and anti-submarine warfare before deployment. A ship loaded with more SM-3 and SM-6 interceptors carries fewer Tomahawks or ASROC weapons, and the U.S. Navy cannot reload Mk 41 cells at sea under normal operational conditions. The Flight III consequently improves detection and engagement quality but does not remove the magazine limitations that shape the class.

The USS William Charette's main gun is a 5-inch Mk 45 Mod 4 weapon capable of naval gunfire support, surface engagement and limited anti-air use. Point defense includes a 20 mm Phalanx Close-In Weapon System (CIWS), while two Mk 32 triple torpedo tubes can launch Mk 46, Mk 50 or Mk 54 lightweight torpedoes. Electronic defense systems include the AN/SLQ-32 electronic warfare suite, Mk 36 decoy launchers, Mk 53 Nulka active decoys and the AN/SLQ-25 Nixie torpedo countermeasure. Anti-submarine warfare (ASW) relies on the AN/SQQ-89 family combat system, hull-mounted sonar, a towed array, Vertical Launch ASROC and embarked aviation. Two MH-60R Seahawk helicopters can operate from dual hangars and use sonobuoys, dipping sonar, electro-optical sensors and Mk 54 torpedoes to extend detection and attack range beyond the ship’s own sonar horizon.

Cooperative Engagement Capability and Link 16 allow the destroyer to exchange radar tracks, identification data and targeting information with aircraft, other ships and allied forces. This permits the vessel to launch an interceptor using track data generated by another sensor, reducing the time between detection and engagement. The ship can therefore protect a carrier strike group, escort an expeditionary strike group, operate inside a surface action group, conduct ballistic missile defense patrols, launch Tomahawk strikes or perform anti-submarine operations without changing its basic combat system. The namesake of the ship, William Richard Charette, enlisted in the Navy on January 11, 1951, completed hospital corps training and volunteered for Fleet Marine Force service during the Korean War.

He joined Company F, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, which was committed to the fighting for Outpost Vegas after earlier Marine assaults had suffered heavy casualties. On March 27, 1953, Charette moved among wounded Marines while exposed to small arms and mortar fire. When an enemy grenade landed beside him and a badly wounded Marine, he placed his body over the casualty. The explosion tore away his helmet, destroyed his medical bag, knocked him unconscious, and caused facial shrapnel wounds that impaired his vision. After regaining consciousness, Charette continued treating casualties, tore sections from his uniform to make bandages, and gave his protective vest to another wounded Marine. He later exposed himself above a trench line to assist and move a severely wounded man while enemy fire continued.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower presented him with the Medal of Honor at the White House on January 12, 1954. Five enlisted sailors received the Medal of Honor for actions during the Korean War, all of them Navy hospital corpsmen serving with Marines, and Charette was the only one of those five who survived the action for which he was decorated. He later served as an Independent Duty Corpsman in the US Navy’s nuclear submarine force, including assignments connected to USS Triton and USS Sam Houston. Charette retired as a master chief hospital corpsman on April 1, 1977, after 26 years of service, and died on March 18, 2012, at the age of 79. The importance of the USS William Charette is driven by the retirement of Ticonderoga-class cruisers and the absence of a near-term replacement.

Ticonderoga cruisers carried 122 Mk 41 cells, 26 more than a Flight III destroyer, and historically provided air defense command for carrier strike groups. Logically, a Flight III cannot replace that magazine depth, but SPY-6, Aegis Baseline 10, and SM-3 or SM-6 allow the destroyers to assume a growing share of integrated air and missile defense tasks. These ships must escort Nimitz- and Ford-class carriers, protect amphibious forces, conduct independent ballistic missile defense patrols and respond to combined salvos of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, anti-ship weapons and drones. Operational demand increased between 2023 and 2025, when the USS Mason, USS Carney, USS Gravely, USS Thomas Hudner, USS Arleigh Burke, USS Cole and USS Bulkeley conducted repeated missile and drone interceptions in the Red Sea, Eastern Mediterranean and Persian Gulf.

For instance, on April 13, 2024, the USS Arleigh Burke and USS Carney used SM-3 interceptors against Iranian ballistic missiles targeting Israel, marking the first combat use of SM-3. A Flight III destroyer can detect and track more threats than an earlier Arleigh Burke, but it cannot sustain unlimited engagements with a 96-cell magazine and no routine means of reloading vertically launched missiles while deployed. The USS William Charette also illustrates why the US Navy continues to fund Flight III destroyers despite the design’s limited future growth margin.

The additional radar, generators, cooling equipment and combat system hardware consume much of the remaining displacement, electrical, thermal and internal volume margin available in the destroyer hull. Larger radar arrays, high-power directed-energy weapons, hypersonic strike systems or substantially larger missile cells would require more power, cooling and structural capacity than Flight III can provide without major redesign. Consequently, the DDG(X) is intended to address these constraints through a larger hull, integrated power generation, greater electrical capacity and additional space for future systems, but is not expected before the early 2030s.

The US Navy must therefore continue buying Flight III destroyers to prevent a break in large surface combatant production, replace cruiser capacity and sustain Bath Iron Works, Ingalls Shipbuilding and their suppliers. The Arleigh Burke program has produced 77 completed ships under one accounting method, with 10 under construction, 13 on order and a planned total close to 99. Delivery capacity remains one to two ships per year, while older cruisers and eventually early Flight I and Flight II destroyers continue to age out of service before the first DDG(X) becomes available.

Written by Jérôme Brahy

Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Ukraine, Russia, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.

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