New U.S. Navy destroyer honors a D-Day Coast Guard hero

Bath Iron Works said the future USS Quentin Walsh, a Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, is now one of the ships taking shape at its Land Level erection stage, the point where large prefabricated hull sections are joined together before launch.

General Dynamics’ Bath Iron Works shipyard in Maine marked the milestone alongside National POW/MIA Recognition Day, tying the ship’s construction progress to the wartime record of its namesake, U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Quentin R. Walsh. Walsh earned the Navy Cross during World War II for his role in securing the Normandy port of Cherbourg days after the D-Day landings, when he convinced German defenders he commanded a force of 800 men ready to attack. That bluff led to the surrender of 350 German troops and the release of 53 Allied prisoners of war.

DDG 132 will be the 44th Arleigh Burke-class destroyer built at Bath Iron Works and the third Flight III variant of the class under construction there. The U.S. Navy awarded the contract for the ship in December 2018, and Bath Iron Works began cutting steel for it in November 2021. The shipyard laid the vessel’s keel in May 2025, when Walsh’s great-granddaughter, serving as the ship’s sponsor, welded her initials into the keel plate in a traditional authentication ceremony.

Like other Flight III destroyers, the Quentin Walsh will carry the AN/SPY-6(V)1 Air and Missile Defense Radar, a four-sided phased array system built to track and help defend against ballistic missiles, hypersonic weapons, cruise missiles, surface threats and electronic attacks in a single integrated radar. The Flight III design also adds upgraded electrical power and cooling capacity to support that radar and other systems compared with earlier Arleigh Burke variants.

Arleigh Burke-class destroyers remain the backbone of the Navy’s surface fleet, built to operate against air, surface and subsurface threats simultaneously. Bath Iron Works has not disclosed a specific launch date or delivery timeline for the Quentin Walsh beyond its current construction stage.