DDG 126 Louis H. Wilson Jr.

DDG 126 will be constructed by Bath Iron Works, a division of General Dynamics in Maine, and is also expected to enter the Navy fleet in 2023.

In a ceremony at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium 17 September 2016, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, DDG 125, will be named Jack H. Lucas in honor of the Marine Corps hero and Medal of Honor recipient. Mabus also announced that DDG 126 would be named Louis H. Wilson Jr. in honor of the 26th commandant of the Marine Corps who was also a Medal of Honor recipient.

Gen. Louis H. Wilson Jr. received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Battle of Guam during World War II. During the assault on Guam in July 1944, while commanding Company F, 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines, Wilson, then a Marine Corps captain, earned the nation's highest honor for heroism in combat when he and his company repelled and destroyed a numerically superior enemy force.

Wilson was promoted to General July 1, 1975, when he assumed the office of commandant of the Marine Corps. As commandant, Wilson repeatedly stressed modernization of the post-Vietnam Marine Corps. He insisted on force readiness, responsiveness and mobility by maintaining fast-moving, hard-hitting expeditionary units, each consisting of a single integrated system of modern ground- and air-delivered firepower, tactical mobility and electronic countermeasures.

DDG 126 will be the first ship named in honor of Louis H. Wilson Jr.

DDG 125 and 126 are the eighth and ninth ships Mabus has named honoring Medal of Honor recipients. Others include John Finn (DDG 113), Ralph Johnson (DDG 114), Thomas Hudner (DDG 116), Daniel Inouye (DDG 118), Harvey C. Barnum Jr. (DDG 124), John Basilone (DDG 122) and Woody Williams (T-ESB 4).

Arleigh Burke-class destroyers conduct a variety of operations from peacetime presence and crisis response to sea control and power projection. DDG 122 will be capable of fighting air, surface and subsurface battles simultaneously, and will contain a combination of offensive and defensive weapon systems designed to support maritime warfare including integrated air and missile defense and vertical launch capabilities. The ship will be 509 feet long, have a beam length of 59 feet and be capable of operating at speeds in excess of 30 knots.