Navy to keep four aging destroyers beyond their service lives

There is life after 35 years of service, at least for four Arleigh Burke-class destroyers newly slated for overhauls that will extend their service lives and keep hulls in the fleet.

“These service life extensions demonstrate the Navy’s commitment to ensuring the surface fleet has the right capability and capacity,” Rear Adm. Fred Pyle, the director of the Surface Warfare Division, said in a Navy press release Thursday. “These extensions align to Secretary of the Navy [Carlos] Del Toro’s commitment to Congress during the FY-24 posture hearings to analyze service life on a hull-by-hull basis and extend the correct ships in order to be good stewards of resources invested in the U.S. Navy by the American people.”

Five-year extensions for the USS Ramage and Benfold will allow them to operate to 2035 and 2036, respectively. The USS Mitscher and Milius will get four-year extensions, keeping them in service until 2034 and 2035, respectively. The latter two have shorter extensions because they would need a year-long overhaul if they went another year, Pyle said in the statement.