ASTORIA, Ore. (AP) - The USS Portland was commissioned Saturday morning at its namesake city.

The vessel with nearly 400 crew members aboard docked at the Port of Astoria on April 12 before reaching Portland Marine Terminal #2 on April 14.

Watch: USS Portland arrives in Portland

Tours were offered throughout the week, leading up to Saturday's commissioning.

Watch the commissioning ceremony here

The San Antonio-class amphibious transport weighs 25,000 tons and is 684 feet long.

It is the first ship to be named exclusively for Oregon's largest city.

It was built in Mississippi for $1.6 billion and sailed through the Panama Canal before docking in San Diego in January.

Gary Piercy, commissioning committee chairman, says the ship would likely respond to an emergency like a large Pacific Northwest earthquake.

Photos: USS Portland arrives in Portland </s> The USS Portland has docked in its namesake city and is offering tours before it’s official commissioning ceremony this weekend.

Starting Monday, people interested in a tour can visit the vessel in the Willamette River at Marine Terminal 2, which is near Northwest 26th Drive and Front Avenue.

"It's really beautiful," Sarah Faulhaber, a local at Marine Terminal 2 Monday, said. "I can't believe how big it is, though."

Faulhaber said she was excited to see the ship Monday because she grew up around ships in Astoria.

"It was a navy town back then," Faulhaber said. "I've always had a great love for [ships]. I love the grey ones."

Tours will also be given Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday starting at 2 p.m. Staff say there are a lot of stairs on the vessel and warn attendees to dress appropriately.

The commissioning ceremony Saturday will officially put the USS Portland into service.

Once it’s in use, the 684-foot ship will support “amphibious assault, special operations, or expeditionary warfare missions,” and be used to transport Marines and equipment, according to officials.

The vessel docked at the Port of Astoria last week and sailed into Portland over the weekend.

Dock ships like these are named for major American cities, and the USS Portland will be the third Navy ship to bear the name. Construction of the vessel began in 2011 in Virginia. </s> USS Zumwalt passes under the Gov. William Preston Lane Memorial Bridge, also known as the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, as the ship travels to its new home port of San Diego, Calif. Oct. 17, 2016. The Navy announced Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2016, that the ship suffered an engineering problem and had to be towed to a berth in Panama.

The most expensive destroyer ever built for the Navy suffered an engineering problem in the Panama Canal and had to be towed to a berth in Panama.

U.S. Third Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Ryan Perry says a vice admiral has directed the USS Zumwalt to remain at ex-Naval Station Rodman in Panama to address the issues. The ship was built at Bath Iron Works in Maine.

Perry says the timeline for repairs is still being determined and the schedule for the ship will remain flexible to enable testing and evaluation.

The ship is in the midst of transit to a new homeport in San Diego.

The 610-foot-long warship has an angular shape to minimize its radar signature. It cost more than $4.4 billion.

The ship was commissioned in October in Maryland. </s> USS Zumwalt passes under the Gov. William Preston Lane Memorial Bridge, also known as the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, as the ship travels to its new home port of San Diego, Calif. Oct. 17, 2016. The Navy announced Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2016, that the ship suffered an engineering problem and had to be towed to a berth in Panama.

WASHINGTON — The Navy’s newest and most technologically advanced guided missile destroyer had to be towed from the Panama Canal after experiencing “engineering issues,” a spokesman for the service said Tuesday in a statement.

The USS Zumwalt, which cost $4.4 billion, will remain at Naval Station Rodman, a former U.S. base in Panama, to repair problems that surfaced this week while the ship cruised to its new homeport in San Diego, said Cmdr. Ryan Perry, a spokesman for the Navy’s Third Fleet. He said it was unclear how long the ship would remain in Panama.

“The schedule for the ship will remain flexible to enable testing and evaluation in order to ensure the ship’s safe transit to her new homeport,” Perry said in a statement.

USNI News, a publication of the U.S. Naval Institute, reported the ship was in the canal when it lost propulsion. Crew members also saw water intrusion in bearings that connect electrical motors to drive shafts, it reported.

The 610-foot-long Zumwalt was billed as the most capable surface combat ship in the world when it was commissioned last month in Baltimore. But the most recent issues were not the first it has faced since it left shipbuilder General Dynamics Bath Iron Works in Maine in September.

The Zumwalt suffered a similar seawater leak in September and another unspecified engineering problem in October, according to USNI News.

The Zumwalt, which features an angular design aimed at tricking enemy radar systems, is the first of three identical destroyers scheduled to be commissioned in its class. The second is expected to cost about $4.4 billion and the third is expected to cost about $3.7 billion.

When it arrives in San Diego, the Zumwalt will begin having its combat systems installed before it is tested and evaluated. The process is expected to last through most of 2017, and the ship will not likely join the Navy’s operational fleet until 2018.

The Associated Press contributed to this story. </s> Just weeks after its debut, the Navy's most technologically advanced destroyer, the USS Zumwalt, has been put out of action due to engineering problems that occurred while it was crossing the Panama Canal.

"The timeline for repairs is being determined now," US Navy Cmdr. Ryan Perry said in a statement to CNN.

Perry noted that the commander of the US Third Fleet, Vice Adm. Nora Tyson, directed the ship to remain at ex-Naval Station Rodman in Panama to determine what caused the malfunction.

The issue occurred Monday while the Zumwalt was on its way to its new homeport of San Diego where it was to join the US Third Fleet, which is responsible for the Pacific Ocean.

The ship is thought to be the most advanced destroyer ever built.

Upon its October commissioning in Baltimore, Adm. Harry B. Harris, Jr., commander of US Pacific Command, said, "If Batman had a ship, it would be the USS Zumwalt." The Zumwalt, equipped with sharp angles and weaponry concealed behind flat surfaces, is designed to be more difficult to spot on radar than conventional destroyers. "We can't get this technological marvel to the Pacific fast enough," Harris said last month, adding, "The technology in Zumwalt's unique hull and the ingenuity of her stalwart crew are powerful guarantors of peace." But the ship's high cost is likely to bring additional scrutiny to the recent malfunction. The Zumwalt is said to have cost $4.4 billion to build. The Navy initially planned to order over 20 of the new destroyers but cost overruns and delays caused the number of ships ordered to be reduced to just three vessels. According to a report by the Government Accountability Office, the total program cost, consisting of three ships, will be over $22 billion. </s> PORTLAND, Maine — The most expensive destroyer ever built for the Navy suffered an engineering problem in the Panama Canal and had to be towed to port. U.S. Third Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Ryan Perry said a vice admiral directed the USS Zumwalt to remain at ex-Naval Station Rodman in Panama to address the issues, which arose ... </s> Washington (AFP) - America's newest warship, the super high-tech USS Zumwalt, broke down in the Panama Canal just a few weeks after the vessel was commissioned, the Navy and reports said Tuesday.

The guided missile destroyer, whose stealth capabilities give it a strikingly angular shape, needed to be towed Monday to a nearby former US naval station after suffering an "engineering casualty," the US Naval Institute's news site reported.

The Zumwalt was en route from Baltimore, where she was commissioned October 15, to San Diego.

Navy spokesman Commander Ryan Perry said in a statement that "the timeline for repairs is being determined now."

"The schedule for the ship will remain flexible to enable testing and evaluation in order to ensure the ship's safe transit to her new homeport in San Diego," Perry said.

An unnamed defense official told USNI News that repairs to the Zumwalt could take up to 10 days.

The $4.3 billion Zumwalt is the first in a new line of revolutionary guided missile destroyers.

The ship is 600 feet (roughly 180 meters) long and weighs nearly 15,000 tons, making it the largest destroyer in the US fleet.

But thanks to its angled hull and deck house, it is designed to look no bigger than a fishing boat on radar.

Its motors are electric powered, driven by an innovative integrated power system that may one day also support an array of energy-intensive weapons like lasers and electromagnetic rail guns. </s> The most expensive destroyer ever built for the US navy has suffered an engineering problem in the Panama Canal and had to be towed to port. 



US Third Fleet spokesman commander Ryan Perry said a vice-admiral directed the USS Zumwalt to remain at ex-Naval Station Rodman in Panama to address the issues, which arose on Monday.

The ship was built at Bath Iron Works in Maine and was on its way to San Diego.

“The schedule for the ship will remain flexible to enable testing and evaluation in order to ensure the ship’s safe transit to her new home port in San Diego,” Perry said in a statement.

USNI News, a publication of the US Naval Institute, reported on its website that the ship was in the canal when it lost propulsion.

Crew also saw water getting into bearings that connect electrical motors to driveshafts, the website reported.

USNI News reported that the Zumwalt suffered minor cosmetic damage. The ship had been scheduled to arrive in San Diego by the end of the year to start the activation of its weapon system, the website reported.

The 610ft warship has an angular shape to minimise its radar signature and is regarded as the most technologically sophisticated destroyers ever built for the navy. One of its signature features is a new gun system that fires rocket-powered shells up to 63 nautical miles.

The Zumwalt cost more than $4.4bn and was commissioned in October in Maryland. It also suffered a leak in its propulsion system before it was commissioned. The leak required the ship to remain at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia longer than expected for repairs.

The ship is part of the first new class of warship built at Bath Iron Works in more than 25 years.

The second Zumwalt-class destroyer, which also cost more than $4.4bn, was christened in a June ceremony during which US Rep Bruce Poliquin called it an “extraordinary machine of peace and security”. The third ship is expected to cost a bit less than $3.7bn.

A spokeswoman for Bath Iron Works said the shipyard was not planning to comment on the breakdown and referred questions to the navy. </s> The costliest, most hi-tech destroyer in the history of the US Navy has broken down on its very first voyage to its homeport.

The 610-foot, 15,000-tonne USS Zumwalt cost almost $4.5bn to build and has an angular, unconventional shape to make it difficult to detect with radar. It is capable of operating with a crew half as big as a conventional destroyer, and carries a pair of guns that can supposedly hit targets with precision at a distance of 80 miles, using rounds that cost at least $800,000 each.

The so-called "stealth destroyer" is so futuristic, it even has a captain called James Kirk.

But on Monday night, as the Zumwalt passed through the Panama Canal, it suffered an engineering malfunction and had to be towed to port. Built in Bath, Maine and commissioned last month in Baltimore, Maryland, the warship was on its way to San Diego, its homeport. According to Defense News, the vessel was towed to the Pacific end of the canal and is now at the former US Naval Station Rodman in Panama, undergoing repairs.

This wasn’t the first time the Zumwalt had broken down. Several months ago, on its way to perform its first at-sea tests, the ship sprang a leak in its auxiliary motor drive oil system, Popular Mechanics reported. That problem took around a fortnight to fix.
USS Portland, a new United States naval ship costing $1.6 billion, arrives and docks in Portland, Oregon, ahead of being formally commissioned later this month.