USS Kearsarge (LHD-3), the third Wasp-class amphibious assault ship, was the fifth ship of the United States Navy to be named (the fourth actually commissioned) in honor of the sloop Kearsarge, of American Civil War fame. She was, in turn, named for Mount Kearsarge in New Hampshire.
Kearsarge's keel was laid down on 9 February 1990 at Litton-Ingalls Shipbuilding Corporation of Pascagoula, Mississippi. She was launched on 26 March 1992, in a ceremony attended by then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Colin Powell. The warship was christened on 16 May 1992, and commissioned on 16 October 1993.