They were built under a cloud of controversy, with their very light gun armament and lack of redundancy and duplicated systems in event of ship being hit.

Oliver Hazard Perry was ordered from Bath Iron Works on 30 October 1973 as part of the FY73 program, and was laid down on 12 June 1975, launched on 25 September 1976, and commissioned on 17 December 1977.

These series of trials conducted early in the life of the ship put this steel hull / aluminum superstructure to the test.

However, this did not affect the overall readiness of the ship, nor did it prevent Oliver Hazard Perry from achieving the record for the most-ever hours put on the GE LM2500 Main Propulsion engine.

Though she was stricken on 3 May 1999, Oliver Hazard Perry was held in the museum donation category at the former Navy shipyard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.