US Navy will name a ship after the late Sen. Thad Cochran

The U.S. Navy has announced that it will name a destroyer in honor of the late Senator from Mississippi, Thad Cochran.

The ship, one of the Navy’s newest Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, “will be capable of fighting air, surface, and subsurface battles simultaneously and will contain a combination of offensive and defensive weapon systems to support maritime warfare, including integrated air and missile defense and vertical launch capabilities,” reports navaltoday.com

The ship will be 509 feet long, have a beam of 59 feet, and be capable of operating in excess of 30 knots.

Cochran was a Navy veteran, serving from 1959 to 1961 on the staff of the Commandant of the Eighth Naval District in New Orleans. He also taught military law at the Officer Candidate School in Newport, R.I. and rose to the rank of lieutenant in the Naval Reserve.

He served Mississippi in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1973 to 1978 when he was elected to the Senate where he served until his retirement in 2018.