Stars and Stripes:

The guided-missile destroyer USS Rafael Peralta arrived at its new homeport here Thursday, bringing with it some of the Navy’s most advanced capabilities, according to Naval Forces Japan.

Commissioned in San Diego in July 2017, the Rafael Peralta is one of the Navy’s newest destroyers and is outfitted with the Aegis Baseline 9 combat system. It can deploy with two MH-60 Seahawk helicopters and “has improved ballistic missile defense, anti-air and surface warfare capabilities,” according to a statement from Naval Forces Japan.

Moving the Rafael Peralta to Japan from San Diego aligns with a national defense strategy that places the most capable units in the Indo-Pacific region, according to the statement.

The Navy for years has been working to increase the fleet size in the military’s priority theater — even before the USS Fitzgerald moved from Yokosuka to Mississippi for repairs after its 2017 collision that killed seven sailors…

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