The guided-missile destroyer USS Mustin returns to Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, on March 23, 2026. (Taylor DiMartino/U.S. Navy)
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — The USS Mustin returned this week to the homeport of the U.S. 7th Fleet after five years in San Diego for modernization, the service said.
The guided-missile destroyer replaces the USS Robert Smalls, one of 10 Ticonderoga-class cruisers left in the Navy and the last of its kind based in Japan. The cruiser departed earlier this month for San Diego as part of a routine homeport shift.
While in San Diego, the ship’s engineering spaces were improved, its command and control systems upgraded and its living spaces refurbished. London-based Bae Systems undertook the work in 2022 under a $89.4 million Navy contract.
“Mustin Nation is proud to return to Japan,” the destroyer’s skipper, Cmdr. Christina Appleman, said in a Navy news release after the ship steamed into port on Monday. “Our arrival has a special meaning for our Sailors and their families. We are rejoining a phenomenal team here in the 7th Fleet and are eager to work alongside our allies and partners in the region.”
A spokesperson for the 7th Fleet did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment Tuesday.
The guided-missile destroyer USS Mustin returns to Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, March 23, 2026. (Taylor DiMartino/U.S. Navy)
The Mustin was previously based in Yokosuka from July 2006 to June 2021. It now rejoins Destroyer Squadron 15, the Navy’s largest deployed destroyer squadron and 7th Fleet’s principal surface force.
“Welcoming USS Mustin back to the [Destroyer Squadron 15] family is a significant moment for us,” squadron commander Capt. David Huljack said in the release. “Their return to the tip of the spear is a clear demonstration of our commitment to maritime security and stability in the Indo-Pacific.”
Commissioned in 2003, the destroyer is named for the Mustin family, whose members served in the Navy for nearly a century.
The Robert Smalls arrived in Yokosuka in 2015 under its former name, the USS Chancellorsville. It was renamed in 2023 after a man born into slavery who seized a Confederate transport ship during the Civil War and turned it over to Union forces.
Congress in 2019 set a 10-year limit for Navy ships deployed overseas following two fatal collisions involving Yokosuka-based destroyers in 2017.
