US Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro recently confirmed the names of two future US Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers (DDGs).
DDG 143 will honour Richard J. Danzig, the 71st Secretary of the Navy, and DDG 144 will be named after retired Admiral Michael J. Mullen, the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Chief of Naval Operations. These are the first US Navy ships to bear their names.
Secretary Danzig served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 1977 to 1981, first as a Deputy Assistant Secretary, then as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower, Reserve Affairs and Logistics. He later served as Under Secretary of the Navy from November 1993 to May 1997, before being sworn in as Secretary of the Navy on November 16, 1998.
Commissioned in 1968, Mullen first deployed aboard the USS Collett for operations off the coast of Vietnam as part of US Seventh Fleet. His command tours include USS Noxubee, USS Goldsboro, USS Yorktown, Cruiser-Destroyer Group Two with concurrent duties as commander of the USS George Washington Aircraft Carrier Battle Group, US Second Fleet with concurrent command of NATO Striking Fleet Atlantic, and US Naval Forces, Europe with concurrent command of Allied Joint Force Command located in Naples, Italy. Staff and shore tours include service at the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Bureau of Naval Personnel, and multiple tours in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations.
Like their Arleigh Burke-class Flight III sisters, the future USS Richard J. Danzig and the future USS Michael G. Mullen will incorporate a number of design modifications that collectively provide significantly enhanced capability including the AN/SPY-6(V)1 Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) and the Aegis Baseline 10 Combat System.
