Work moves ahead on two new guided missile destroyers

General Dynamics Bath Iron Works reports two milestones this week in the Arleigh Burke-class (DG 51) destroyer program for the U.S. Navy.

On Friday, the shipbuilder was holding a ceremony at its Hardings facility in West Bath, Conn., to mark the beginning of the fabrication of the future guided missile destroyer Daniel Inouye (DDG 118).

Daniel Inouye was a U.S. Senator from Hawaii who won the Medal of Honor while fighting with the U.S. Army in Italy during World War II.

On Thursday, Bath Iron Works held a keel laying ceremony for the Rafael Peralta (DDG 115), the company's 35th Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer.

The keel unit, which weighs about 3,000-tons, is the heavily outfitted mid-section of the ship which contains its main machinery spaces. The unit layed will comprises about a third of the entire ship, and was moved earlier from the shipyard's Ultra Hall construction facility onto the building ways.

The ship is named after Medal of Honor winner Rafael Peralta, a U.S. Marine killed in Iraq in 2004.

Arleigh Burke-class destroyers are multi-mission ships, equipped with the Aegis combat system, a vertical launching system for anti-ship and land attack missiles. The U.S. Navy has more than 60 of the advanced destroyers with more on order.