The local chapter of the nonprofit Navy League of the United States said it has raised about half of its $450,000 fundraising goal to pay for a weeklong series of receptions, luncheons and tours for the USS Detroit commissioning ceremony in September.

The Navy League's Metropolitan Detroit Councilhas raised about $200,000 from several corporations, including $25,000 each from Quicken Loans Inc., General Motors Co., Penske Corp., Masco Corp. and Bank of America, said John Peracchio, chairman of the USS Detroit commissioning committee.

Other notable corporate donors include $15,000 from Meijer Inc., and $10,000 each from Comerica Bank and Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP, according to a breakdown provided by the Navy League.

Detroit-based Marketing Associates is providing in-kind support in the form of design and production of promotional media, and Plante & Moran is doing pro bono accounting and tax reporting support, Peracchio said.

The corporate donations are being sought because federal law forbids the Navy to fund the public events before and after the commissioning ceremony, tentatively scheduled for Sept. 19 on the Detroit River outside of the Renaissance Center.

Details about the ceremonies and donations — sponsorship levels range from $500 to $100,000 and each comes with a variety of perks — can be found at ussdetroitlcs7.com.

"It's difficult to get people excited and maintain that excitement over three years," said Leslie Andrews, Quicken Loans' director of community relations, who has been directly involved in the USS Detroit effort. The Dan Gilbert-owned online mortgage lender is the official volunteer commissioning company, and Quicken President and Chief Marketing Officer Jay Farner is the event's honorary chairman.

Corporations have begun to pledge cash, or increased their giving, over the past 90

days, Andrews said, because the commissioning date is nearing and because the USS Milwaukee, a littoral combat ship in the same class as the Detroit, visited the city's port in November.

"We're getting companies now to come to the table that needed more background or evidence," she said. "It's not small dollars."

GM and Ford Motor Co. both are interested in heavier involvement, Andrews said.

Up to 4,000 people are expected for the official ceremony, which will formally mark the Navy's acceptance of the USS Detroit, a $360 million LCS, into the fleet and the point at which the vessel's captain takes official command.

There are receptions, luncheons and breakfasts that the Navy League is seeking to have underwritten by corporate sponsors, said Peracchio, owner of Grosse Pointe Shores-based Peracchio & Co. LLC, an automotive-focused intelligent transportation systems consultancy. He's been a Navy League member for more than 30 years and also serves as the group's historian.

The local Navy League chapter also is planning a number of events in the weeks and months leading up to the commission week, he said. The details of those events haven't been disclosed.

One thing that is known is that USS Detroit's crew of about 50 sailors will receive Shinola leather goods emblazoned with the ship's crest, Peracchio said. They won't receive watches because the Navy limits the value of gifts that can be given to sailors for such events.

The commissioning ceremony is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 17, with a week of events, parties, and tours in the days prior. The actual date for the ceremony has moved a number of times because the Navy cannot make the vessel available until construction and testing is complete, Peracchio said.

After the crew arrives at the vessel's Wisconsin shipyard from San Diego this month, the USS Detroit will conduct sea trials and testing in Lake Michigan, he said.

"They have to run through each of these certifications and meet them within certain periods of time to get accepted into fleet," he said.

The 378-foot, 3,500-ton Freedom-class vessel was built by the Marinette Marine Corp. shipyard on the Menominee River in Marinette, Wis.

U.S. Sen. Carl Levin's wife, Barbara, broke a bottle of champagne across the bow to formally christen the ship on Oct. 18, 2014. Construction began in November 2012.

The ship will become part of the U.S. Pacific Fleet based in San Diego. However, it will be forward-deployed out of Singapore between the Pacific and Indian oceans at the southern tip of Malaysia — always a potential hot spot because a significant portion of the world's oil moves through the straits.

The Freedom class littoral combat ships, of which the USS Detroit is the seventh, cost an average of $360 million.

The Detroit was part of a contract awarded in 2004 to a consortium led by Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin Corp., a minority owner in Marinette (which is majority owned by Fincantieri-Cantieri Navali Italiani S.p.A., which builds many of the world's cruise ships).

The Detroit was designed by Arlington, Va.-based naval architect Gibbs & Cox Inc.

Shallow-draft littoral combat ships operate in coastal areas (known as the littoral in geographic nomenclature), and ships in Detroit's class could fight the modern pirate threat in places such as off Somalia's long coast or other threats in the Pacific islands.

A shift in U.S. naval priorities in the past couple of years, including a pivot to a focus on the Asia-Pacific region and a debate over the size of the Navy, has led to a changing role for the littoral combat ships.

Now, their primary duties are searching out and disarming sea mines and submarines, delivering small groups of Marines or SEALs ashore, and battling small boats such as the skiffs and speedboats that sometimes swarm ships.

The Detroit and its sister vessels use a remote underwater vehicle and sensors to find lurking enemy submarines.

Littoral combat ships are designed to be fast and quiet. They can travel at speeds up to 45 knots, or nearly 52 mph. Rather than propellers, they use water jets, giving the ship the ability to turn on a dime.

Lockheed Martin said the Detroit's two diesel engines create 17,370 horsepower, or the same as 275 Ford Mustangs.