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August 1, 2025

Bath Iron Works awarded contract for additional destroyer 

A ship is in a launch area with streamers and people. FILE PHOTO / COURTESY BATH IRON WORKS The U.S. Navy added an additional DDG 51 destroyer to Bath Iron Works’ multi-year contract awarded in 2023. Seen here is the christening of a destroyer in 2024.
By Laurie Schreiber

Bath Iron Works, a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE:GD), said today that the U.S. Navy has exercised an option to add an additional DDG 51 destroyer to the multi-year contract awarded in 2023.

“We are proud to be selected to build this ship for the U.S. Navy and to continue our legacy of contributing to the nation’s defense,” said Charles Krugh, BIW’ president. “I appreciate the efforts of our team to improve the construction process and build to the plan. We are clawing back schedule so we can deliver more Bath-built ships to our Navy.”

An aerial view of an i ndustrial complex next to water.
FILE PHOTO / COURTESY BATH IRON WORKS
BIW, on the Kennebec River, currently has seven destroyers under construction.

The 2023 contract provided for construction of three destroyers, one each in fiscal 2023, 2024 and 2026. The contract included options for construction of additional Arleigh Burkes, subject to future bidding competitions.

The Navy did not disclose the dollar values associated with the contract, considered “source selection sensitive information,” according to a U.S. Department of Defense news release at the time.

The Arleigh Burke-class warship design is based on the original USS Arleigh Burke, a 505-foot ship commissioned in 1991 with hull designation DDG 51, which became the first in a class of ships now considered the workhorse of the Navy's fleet and a staple of BIW’s shipbuilding.

BIW currently has under construction the Flight IIA Arleigh Burke-class destroyers Harvey C. Barnum Jr. (DDG 124) and Patrick Gallagher (DDG 127) as well as the Flight III configuration destroyers Louis H. Wilson Jr. (DDG 126), William Charette (DDG 130), Quentin Walsh (DDG 132), John E. Kilmer (DDG 134) and Richard G. Lugar (DDG 136).

“This destroyer will enhance our national security, protect good-paying Maine jobs and provide long-term stability for the highly skilled men and women at BIW,” said U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee and secured the DDG-51 funding.

The ship, the DDG-148, will be named after Cpl. Kyle Carpenter, the youngest living Medal of Honor recipient. Carpenter received the Medal of Honor in 2014 after shielding a fellow Marine from a grenade blast in Afghanistan in 2010. 

A person poses for a headshot.
PHOTO / COURTESY OFFICE OF U.S .SEN. SUSAN COLLINS
Cpl. Kyle Carpenter

He recovered from life-threatening injuries, including the loss of his right eye and extensive surgeries, and later earned a college degree, wrote a memoir titled "You Are Worth It," and became a motivational speaker. 

In May, BIW laid the keel for a future destroyer to be named USS Quentin Walsh (DDG 132), an Arleigh Burke-class Flight III guided missile destroyer. The keel laying represents the start of a ship's construction. 

The ship’s namesake, Coast Guard Capt. Quentin R. Walsh, was awarded the Navy Cross for his heroic actions during World War II.

Since 1902, there have been 10 classes of U.S. Navy destroyers, according to the Navy’s Naval History and Heritage Command Communication and Outreach Division.

DDG is a hull designation that signifies a ship is a guided missile destroyer.

The Flight III design variant is centered on an air and missile defense radar system, and are considered the most technologically advanced surface warships in the world.

Including multiplier effects from spending by BIW and its employees, Bath Iron Works was a $2.5 billion economic driver for Maine as of 2023, according to a 2024 economic impact analysis by Ryan Wallace of Wallace Economic Advisors.

BIW ranks as Maine’s fourth-largest private-sector employer in the 2025 Mainebiz Book of Lists, with more than 6,500 employees. 

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