USS Gabrielle Giffords

USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS-10) is an Independence-class littoral combat ship of the United States Navy. The ship is named after former United States Representative Gabby Giffords, who was shot along with eighteen other people during a 2011 shooting in Tucson, Arizona. The ship's name was announced by then-Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus on 10 February 2012. Gabrielle Giffords is the 16th U.S. naval ship to be named for a woman by the United States Navy, and the 13th U.S. naval ship since 1850 to be named after a living person.

Construction on Gabrielle Giffords began with her keel laying on 16 April 2014, at the Austal USA shipyard in Mobile, Alabama. Rep. Giffords, still recovering from injuries sustained in the 2011 assassination attempt, attended the ship's keel-laying ceremony, and with the assistance of an Austal welder, welded her initials into a plate that would become part of the ship's hull. Gabrielle Giffords was launched, and then moved from her construction facility to drydock, on 26 February 2015. The ship was christened in a ceremony held at the Austal USA shipyard on 13 June 2015, and Second Lady of the United States Jill Biden served as ship sponsor at the christening. The ship was delivered to the U.S. Navy on 23 December 2016, and commissioned the following spring on 10 June 2017, in Galveston, Texas.