Bath Iron Works moves to next stage in construction of Navy destroyer

Photo / Courtesy of BIW Brent Frye, a welder at Bath Iron Works, strikes welding arcs onto a steel plate of the future USS William Charette as U.S. Navy Surgeon General Rear Adm. Darin Via looks on. The plate will be incorporated into the Navy warship, which is due to be completed in 2025.

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By Renee Cordes

Bath Iron Works passed an important milestone in the construction of a Navy warship due to be completed in 2025.

BIW, owned by General Dynamics Corp. (NYSE: GD), named the vessel for William Charette, a Navy master chief hospital corpsman who received the Medal of Honor during the Korean War.

The keel was laid at a ceremony last Thursday.

“Rather than a collection of units moving through our production buildings, William Charette is now being integrated into a ship on land level," BIW President Charles Krugh said in a news release issued after the event.

"Shipbuilders, including welders, shipfitters, electricians, pipefitters, machinists and preservation technicians, will now connect, install and protect ship services as we move toward launch," he added.

Construction on the Arleigh Burke-class Navy destroyer began in 2020.

“In a little over a year, our ship’s completion team will finish the assembly and ready the ship for christening and launch,” BIW spokesman David Hench told Mainebiz.

In the 12 months after that, the company's test and activation team will prepare all systems and take the ship out sea trials, he explained.

Hench noted that thousands of employees are involved in such a project, from the engineers and designers even before construction begins, to production employees who fabricate and assemble various sections and parts including ventilation systems and piping.

“Then it passes through each stage of construction, where production employees fabricate and assemble different sections as well as many of the parts like ventilation systems and piping,” he explained.

Rear Adm. Darin Via, U.S. Navy surgeon general and chief, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, spoke at last Thursday's event on behalf of the Secretary of the Navy.

The ship’s sponsors are Charette’s daughters, Margaret Ann Charette Henderson, Kati Charette Donovan and Laura Charette Bennett.

Brent Frye, a welder with 14 years of experience at BIW, completed the keel authentication by striking welding arcs onto a steel plate with the sponsors’ initials, a plate that will be incorporated into the ship.

Separately on Friday, BIW held a keel plate signing ceremony for the future USS Thomas G. Kelley (DDG 140).

The ceremony was attended by the ship’s namesake, retired Navy Capt. Thomas Kelley. Kelley is a Medal of Honor recipient who commanded a river assault division in the Vietnam War.

BIW was ranked No. 4 among Maine's largest employers in the 2024 Mainebiz Book of Lists, with between 6,001 and 6,500 employees. Companies were ranked by average monthly employment in the first quarter of 2023.