The contract to build the destroyer was awarded on 26 September 2011 to
Ingalls Shipbuilding of
Pascagoula, Mississippi. On 15 February 2012, Secretary of the Navy
Ray Mabus announced the ship was to be named
Ralph Johnson in honor of Marine
Ralph H. Johnson, who was posthumously awarded the
Medal of Honor for shielding two fellow Marines from a grenade in March 1968 during the
Vietnam War. The contract was worth $697.6 million fixed price, and was also the 30th
Arleigh Burke-class destroyer contract issued to Ingalls Shipbuilding.
Ralph Johnson is the 64th ship of the
Arleigh Burke class of destroyers, the first of which, , was commissioned in July 1991. With 75 ships planned to be built in total, the class has the longest production run for any U.S. Navy surface combatant. As an
Arleigh Burke-class ship,
Ralph Johnsons roles included
anti-aircraft,
anti-submarine, and
anti-surface warfare, as well as strike operations. During the long production run, the class was built in three flights—Flight I (DDG-51–DDG-71), Flight II (DDG-72–DDG-78), and Flight IIA (DDG-79– ).
Ralph Johnson is a Flight IIA ship, and as such, features several improvements in terms of
ballistic missile defence, an embarked
air wing, and the inclusion of
mine-detecting ability. The first three ships (DDG-113—DDG-115) ordered following the product decision are known as the "restart" ships, while "technology insertion" ships (DDG-116—DDG-123) are expected to incorporate certain elements of
Arleigh Burke class Flight III, which in turn will run from DDG-124 onwards. As a "restart" ship,
Ralph Johnson primarily features upgraded electronics; she was originally scheduled to be delivered in August 2016, The warship arrived at the
Port of Charleston's Columbus Street Terminal on 19 March 2018 and was
commissioned on 24 March. On 4 September 2023,
Ralph Johnson conducted a bilateral sail with of the
Philippine Navy in the
South China Sea. ==Awards==