Cmdr. Daniel Hancock, a 2002 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, is the commanding officer of the ship and leads the core crew of 32 officers and 297 enlisted personnel. The ship was built by Ingalls Shipbuilding is a shipyard located in Pascagoula, Mississippi. The ship is nearly 510 feet long, has a beam of 59 feet, and a navigational draft of 33 feet. Four General Electric LM 2500-30 gas turbines and two shafts power the ship, making it capable of speed in excess of 30 knots.

The ship is named in honor of the late U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Frank E. Petersen Jr., who was the first Black aviator and general officer in the Marine Corps.

The ship’s motto, "Into the Tiger’s Jaw," is a phrase used by Lieutenant General Petersen many times in his life and conveys the unbridled spirit confronting and overcoming social injustices and prejudices as well as courage and bravery in combat. It also served as the title of Petersen’s autobiography.

Arleigh Burke (DDG 51) class guided missile destroyers provide a wide range of warfighting capabilities in multi-threat air, surface, and subsurface environments. These ships respond to Low Intensity Conflict/Coastal and Littoral Offshore Warfare (LIC/CALOW) scenarios as well as open-ocean conflict independently or as units of Carrier Strike Groups (CSG), Surface Action Groups (SAG), and Expeditionary Strike Groups (ESG).

Following commissioning, Frank E. Petersen Jr. will be homeported at Hawaii’s Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.