USS Omaha (LCS-12)

Design

In 2002, the United States Navy initiated a program to develop the first of a fleet of littoral combat ships. The Navy initially ordered two trimaran hulled ships from General Dynamics, which became known as the after the first ship of the class, . 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 . The initial order of littoral combat ships involved a total of four ships, including two of the Independence-class design. On 29 December 2010, the Navy announced that it was awarding Austal USA a contract to build ten additional Independence-class littoral combat ships.

Construction and career

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

UFO incident

On 15 July 2019 alleged multiple UFOs were tracked on the ship's radar while training off the coast of San Diego. They were also recorded and posted online. Subsequent investigation by the Pentagon's Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF) failed to determine the nature or origin of the phenomena, which remain unexplained. Skeptical investigator and science writer Mick West commented on the posted video, stating that "What we’ve got to go with here is the simplest explanation and really the simplest explanation is that it’s just a plane. It moves like a plane, it acts like a plane".

References

References

1. Liewer, Steve. (22 December 2015). "Susie Buffett christens USS Omaha, the newest member of Navy's fleet". [[Omaha World-Herald]].
2. "US Navy Fact File: Littoral Combat Ship Class – LCS". US Navy.
3. Special from Navy Office of Information. (29 December 2010). "Littoral Combat Ship Contract Award Announced". Navy News Service.
4. (27 June 2014). "Navy Engineers LCS Changes". Monster.
5. ["Omaha"]({{Naval Vessel Register URL). Naval Vessel Register.
6. (18 February 2015). "Austal commemorates keel laying for USS Omaha (LCS 12)". Austal USA.
7. Program Executive Office Littoral Combat Ships. (20 November 2015). "Future USS Omaha (LCS 12) Launches". Navy News Service.
8. (15 February 2012). "Navy Names Five New Ships". U.S. Department of Defense.
9. (15 February 2012). "Introducing... The USS Omaha". [[WOWT]] NBC Omaha.
10. (3 February 2018). "USS ''Omaha'' will be commissioned in San Diego today".
11. "LCS Squadron 1". public.navy.mil..
12. Barnes, Dustin. (28 May 2021). "UFO filmmaker releases 46-second video allegedly showing swarm of objects hovering near Navy ship". USA Today.
13. (4 June 2021). "US intelligence officials have no evidence confirming Navy pilot UFO encounters were alien spacecraft". CNN.
14. (4 June 2021). "U.S. government finds no evidence aerial sightings were alien spacecraft -NYT". Reuters.
15. O’Neill, Jesse. (2021-06-30). "New UFO footage released by filmmaker panned as underwhelming".
16. Matthews, Dylan. (2021-06-18). "UFOs are real. That’s the easy part. Now here’s the hard part.".