In 2002, the United States Navy initiated a program to develop the first of a fleet of littoral combat ships.^[4] The Navy initially ordered two trimaran hulled ships from General Dynamics, which became known as the Independence-class littoral combat ship after the first ship of the class, USS Independence (LCS-2).^[4] Even-numbered U.S. Navy littoral combat ships are built using the Independence-class trimaran design, while odd-numbered ships are based on a competing design, the conventional monohull Freedom-class littoral combat ship.^[4] The initial order of littoral combat ships involved a total of four ships, including two of the Independence-class design.^[4] On 29 December 2010, the Navy announced that it was awarding Austal USA a contract to build ten additional Independence-class littoral combat ships.^[5][6]

The vessel was ordered from Austal USA with a contract awarded on 29 December 2010.^[1] The ceremonial laying of the keel was on 18 February 2015, at their shipyard in Mobile, Alabama.^[2] Omaha was launched from Austal USA's shipyards in Mobile, Alabama on 20 November 2015.^[7] Omaha was christened on 19 December 2015. The ship's sponsor was Omaha philanthropist Susie Buffett.^[3] The littoral combat ship was the fourth ship to be named for Omaha, the largest city in Nebraska.^[8][9] Omaha was commissioned on 3 February 2018 in San Diego, California.^[10] She was assigned to Littoral Combat Ship Squadron One.^[11]

UFO incident edit

On 15 July 2019 alleged multiple UFOs were tracked on the ship's radar while training off the coast of San Diego.^[12] Subsequent investigation by the Pentagon's Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF) failed to determine the nature^[13] or origin^[14] of the phenomena, which remain unexplained.

• This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here.

•   Media related to USS Omaha (LCS-12) at Wikimedia Commons