Pecos, the eleventh Henry J. Kaiser-class ship, was laid down on 17 February 1988 at Avondale Shipyards in New Orleans, Louisiana, and launched on 23 September 1989.

[1] On 9 December 1999 a United States Marine Corps CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter crashed into Pecos and sank while participating in a training mission.

[2][3] During Operation Tomodachi, Pecos rendezvoused with United States Seventh Fleet flagship USS Blue Ridge near Kyushu, Japan.

[5] On 28 November 2018, the United States Navy sent Pecos and USS Stockdale through the Taiwan Strait as a demonstration of the "U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific," according to a U.S. Pacific Fleet spokesman.

The transit took place only a few days before a planned meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina.