BATH, Maine — Two years after the destroyer sailed from Bath Iron Works down the Kennebec River, the future USS Daniel Inouye (DDG 118) left BIW Wednesday to begin sea trials.
The trials provide the first opportunity for the U.S. Navy to see its ship underway.
The event comes at the end of a tumultuous year for the shipyard, which faced outbreaks of COVID-19 as well as a bitter, 9-week-long strike by its largest union.
Earlier this month, BIW began construction of the DDG 130 (the future USS William Charette), the 43rd Arleigh Burke-class destroyer to be built at the shipyard.
"The Navy is counting on us to get the shipyard back on schedule and starting construction of DDG 130 is an important step in that direction," BIW President Dirk Lesko said in a statement at the time.
The destroyers are part of a 2018 multi-ship procurement that awarded 10 DDG-51s to the only two shipyards that build the guided-missile destroyers for the U.S. Navy. Initially, six were awarded to Huntington Ingalls Industries in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and four to Bath Iron Works. Each shipyard was eventually awarded an additional hull.
On Dec. 5, BIW awarded shipbuilders an extra holiday -- Christmas Eve Day -- as a reward for preparing the DDG 118 for sea trials, as well as getting fabrication on schedule and accelerating the pre-outfit department's shipbuilding rate to 1.5 ships per year by year's end, the Associated Press reported.
In a statement Wednesday, BIW said the DDG 118 "represents our future as a shipyard, not just because this ship is an important and much-needed asset for the U.S. Navy fleet, but also because it demonstrates the commitment by our workforce and company management to increase our shipbuilding rate to two ships per year, a crucial part of our Three Year Schedule Recovery Plan that is well underway."