The U.S. Navy commissioned the guided-missile destroyer USS Ted Stevens (DDG 128) in a rainy ceremony at the Whittier Cruise Terminal in Whittier, Alaska, on Oct. 3, 2026.
Footage from the official Navy ceremony video shows the ship pierside as the crew run aboard through the rain, then sailors manning the rails of the Navy’s newest destroyer. The clip runs about a minute.
The Ted Stevens is a Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, equipped with the AN/SPY-6(V)1 Air and Missile Defense Radar and Aegis Baseline 10 — the Navy’s latest surface combatant configuration.
She is the first U.S. warship named for the late Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, a decorated World War II Army Air Corps pilot who served in the U.S. Senate from December 1968 to January 2009.
The ship was built by Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and delivered to the Navy in December 2025. Her homeport is Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia.
Video: U.S. Navy (public domain)