Indiana Senators Todd Young and Mike Braun want the Navy to name a new destroyer after former Sen. Richard G. Lugar.
Young and Braun announced Thursday they are introducing a measure calling for its next Arleigh Burke-class destroyer to be named in honor of Lugar, who died April 28.
“It is fitting that the Navy honor his legacy by naming one of their warships after this dedicated statesman who helped change the course of history,” Young said in a statement.
Braun called Lugar “a towering figure in Hoosier history.” and said he was proud to join Young in the effort to name a ship in his honor.
Young and Braun said they are introducing an amendment to the defense budget that would order the Secretary of the Navy to name the warship after Lugar.
Two decades before he served as U.S. senator from 1977 to 2013, Lugar joined the Navy.
Lugar served from 1957 to 1960, including a stint as intelligence briefer to then-Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Arleigh Burke.
In the senate, Lugar was chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and led a bipartisan effort to dismantle more than 7,600 nuclear warheads, millions of chemical munitions and thousands of missiles.
