USS Oakland (LCS 24)

USS OAKLAND is the 12th INDEPENDENCE - class Littoral Combat Ship and the third ship in the Navy named for the city in California.

General Characteristics:	Awarded: December 29, 2010
	Keel laid: July 20, 2018
	Launched: July 21, 2019
	Commissioned: April 17, 2021
	Builder: Austal USA, Mobile, Ala.
	Propulsion system: two LM2500 gas turbine engines, two diesel engines, four waterjets
	Length: 418 feet (127.5 meters)
	Beam: 104 feet (31.5 meters)
	Draft: 13 feet (4 meters)
	Displacement: approx. 3,104 tons full load
	Speed: 47 knots
	Armament: one Mk-110 57mm gun, one SeaRAM CIWS
	Aircraft: two MH-60 helicopters
	Homeport: San Diego, Calif.
	Crew: 8 officers, 32 enlisted

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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS OAKLAND. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.

Click here to view the list.

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USS OAKLAND History:

From the outset USS OAKLAND followed the INDEPENDENCE-variant production rhythm at Austal USA in Mobile, Alabama: her keel was laid on July 20, 2018, she was christened on June 29, 2019, and launched on July 21, 2019. Builder's and acceptance trials in the Gulf of Mexico concluded in late May 2020, and the Navy formally accepted the ship on June 26, 2020. After post-delivery preparations and crew training on the U.S. Gulf and West Coasts, OAKLAND was commissioned during a shoreside ceremony in Oakland, California, on April 17, 2021, then shifted to her new homeport at Naval Base San Diego.

Within days she was in the Southern California operating areas as one of the fleet test platforms during U.S. Pacific Fleet's Unmanned Integrated Battle Problem (UxS IBP) 21 on April 22, 2021, working close to San Diego with small unmanned surface craft while her crew refined ship control, flight-deck, and force-protection procedures for the trimaran's first year in service. Through the remainder of 2021, the crew completed the normal shakedown, certifications, and pier-side availabilities typical for a new LCS. By December 2021, OAKLAND had received and integrated the over-the-horizon Naval Strike Missile system in San Diego, adding a long-range anti-surface capability that would shape later training and employment.

The ship's first extended Western Pacific employment took shape across 2022 as the Navy increased the number of INDEPENDENCE-variant hulls forward in the Seventh Fleet. By high summer the ship had crossed into the South Pacific to support the 80th-anniversary commemorations of the Guadalcanal campaign. On August 7, 2022, OAKLAND lay off Honiara, Solomon Islands, for the official ceremony at the Guadalcanal American Memorial and then, on August 9, conducted remembrance activities off Savo Island. During the commemoration period the ship joined a small formation with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer JS KIRISAME (DD 104) and the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force patrol vessel RSIPV TARO for passage events and group sailing, a highly visible demonstration of maritime partnership in a region where strategic competition had sharpened in 2022. After work in the South Pacific, OAKLAND continued west through the archipelagic waters of maritime Southeast Asia for late-year events in the Bay of Bengal. From December 6-9, 2022, she participated in Bangladesh's first International Fleet Review off Cox's Bazar and at Chattogram (Chittagong), taking part in combined naval, maritime-safety, and cultural activities alongside units from more than two dozen nations. Throughout this 2022 sequence the ship operated under Destroyer Squadron Seven, Seventh Fleet's forward sea-combat and LCS task organization in Southeast Asia, cycling between periods underway and reset at Singapore.

The Singapore hub phase of the deployment is well documented in early 2023. On January 17-19, 2023, OAKLAND moored at Changi Naval Base after an underway period and then, on January 18, transited into the Natuna Sea for operations, a routine but strategically important patrol box between Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo, and the southern South China Sea where the U.S. Navy regularly trains with partners. On January 21 and January 25 at Changi, the crew ran successive damage-control and shipboard firefighting drills while completing logistics and maintenance. On February 1, OAKLAND sortied from Changi to resume the rotational Seventh Fleet employment. She returned to Changi by February 7 and hosted a ship tour for JMSDF sailors from the TAKANAMI-class destroyer JS MAKINAMI (DD 112), part of a steady cross-decking program with regional navies. Through March the ship continued presence operations, embarked an MH-60R detachment from HSM-35, and on March 20 hosted additional ship tours at Changi that highlighted aviation operations from the INDEPENDENCE-variant's expansive flight deck. In late April the ship shifted farther into the South Pacific to join CROIX DU SUD 2023 in New Caledonia, a French-led, multi-national certification exercise focused on humanitarian assistance, non-combatant evacuation, and security operations. From April 24 to May 8, 2023, OAKLAND conducted small-boat operations, maneuvering drills, communications checks, and cross-deck exchanges with units that included the French amphibious assault ship FS DIXMUDE (L 9015), the frigate FS LA FAYETTE (F 710), the patrol craft FS LA GLORIEUSE, and the Royal Navy's RIVER-class offshore patrol vessel HMS SPEY (P 234). The deployment then returned to a Southeast Asia rhythm, again using Singapore as a logistics anchor. On June 27, 2023, the commanding officer welcomed professional staff from the U.S. House Armed Services Committee aboard at Changi for discussions on forward LCS employment while the ship remained under DESRON 7 tasking.

After roughly eighteen months abroad on this first extended Western Pacific employment, OAKLAND headed back across the Pacific. She arrived at Naval Base San Diego on January 19, 2024, rejoining the local LCS squadron after a deployment that had stretched from the Bay of Bengal to New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands. The return initiated a shore-phase cycle of post-deployment maintenance, inspections, and crew turnover.

Through 2025, OAKLAND remained homeported in San Diego within Littoral Combat Ship Squadron ONE, conducting local operations, training, and maintenance as the class continued its mix of near-shore and open-ocean tasking on the U.S. West Coast and in the Indo-Pacific.

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USS OAKLAND Image Gallery:

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the future USS OAKLAND under construction at Austal in Mobile, Ala., on October 17, 2019.

The photos below were taken by Sebastian Thoma and show USS OAKLAND at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on November 28 and November 29 (aerial photos), 2021.