Sailors manned the rails on the Ingalls-built USS Benfold (DDG 65) as the ship returned to the U.S. on Sept. 29, 2025, following 10 consecutive years of forward-deployed service in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations.
Benfold is scheduled to relocate to Everett, Washington, to support U.S. 3rd Fleet operations. The ship will also shift from DESRON 15 to the “Ke Koa O Ke Kai” (The Warriors of the Sea) of DESRON 31 after its transit across the international date line.
Making History: USS Benfold is a Flight I Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and was one of the first ships fitted with the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System. Additionally, during the 2010 Stellar Daggers exercise, DDG 65 was the first ship to simultaneously engage a ballistic missile and a cruise missile.
Why It Matters: DDG 65 was built at Ingalls, with the keel being laid in 1993, and the ship commissioned in 1996