USS Ray Mabus

USS Ray Mabus (DDG-147) is the planned 97th Arleigh Burke-class (Flight III) Aegis guided missile destroyer of the United States Navy. She is named for former Navy Secretary Ray Mabus. The flight III variant will be built by Ingalls Shipbuilding.

History
United States
Name	Ray Mabus
Namesake	Ray Mabus
Builder	Ingalls Shipbuilding
Identification	Hull number: DDG-147
Status	Authorized for construction[1]
General characteristics
Class & type	Arleigh Burke-class destroyer
Displacement	9,217 tons (full load)[2]
Length	510 ft (160 m)[2]
Beam	66 ft (20 m)[2]
Propulsion	4 × General Electric LM2500 gas turbines 100,000 shp (75,000 kW)[2]
Speed	31 knots (57 km/h; 36 mph)[2]
Complement	380 officers and enlisted
Armament	Guns: 1 × 5-inch (127 mm)/62 Mk 45 Mod 4 (lightweight gun) 1 × 20 mm (0.8 in) Phalanx CIWS 2 × 25 mm (0.98 in) Mk 38 machine gun system 4 × 0.50 in (12.7 mm) caliber guns Missiles: 1 × 32-cell, 1 × 64-cell (96 total cells) Mk 41 vertical launching system (VLS): RIM-66M surface-to-air missile RIM-156 surface-to-air missile RIM-174A Standard ERAM RIM-161 anti-ballistic missile RIM-162 ESSM (quad-packed) BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missile RUM-139 vertical launch ASROC Torpedoes: 2 × Mark 32 triple torpedo tubes: Mark 46 lightweight torpedo Mark 50 lightweight torpedo Mark 54 lightweight torpedo
Armor	Kevlar-type armor with steel hull. Numerous passive survivability measures.
Aircraft carried	2 × MH-60R Seahawk helicopters
Aviation facilities	Double hangar and helipad

Naming

She is named for the 75th United States Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus,^[1] who served in the role from 2009 to 2017, both the longest term in almost 100 years and the first to serve the entire eight-year term of his president in that time as well. Mabus also served as a surface warfare officer in the Navy from 1970 to 1972, after finishing his undergraduate degree and before attending Harvard Law School.

Historical background

Mabus first entered politics as the State auditor of Mississippi, then went on to become governor of Mississippi from 1988 to 1992. Shortly after that he went on to be the United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1994 to 1996. He then returned home to practice law until 2008 when he campaigned for Barack Obama. Following Obama's victory, Mabus was successfully nominated for Secretary of the Navy.

Mabus made several progressive changes that were both applauded and criticized by many in the government and the United States Department of the Navy. He pushed to have ships run on alternative fuels and he made changes to the ship naming customs, to recognize more women and minorities, civil rights activists and people in government who were leaders away from the battlefield. He also pushed for more desegregation among the genders, including gender-neutral titles, co-ed training in the Marines, and the first women to serve on submarines.

President Obama tasked Mabus with designing a plan to aid the recovery of the Gulf Coast following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster. He turned in a plan that was the basis of the $5 billion RESTORE Act. Mabus was repeatedly at odds with his superiors and lawmakers over budget issues, but was able to contract the building of 86 vessels during his tenure.