Ten ships of the United States Navy have borne the name USS Wasp, after the stinging insect.
The eighth USS Wasp (CV-7) was a United States Navy aircraft carrier. She was the sole ship of her class. Built to use up the remaining tonnage allowed to the United States for aircraft carriers under the treaties of the time, she was built on a reduced-size version of the Yorktown class hull.
The ninth USS Wasp (CV-18) of the United States Navy was an Essex-class aircraft carrier.
USS Wasp (LHD-1) is a U.S. Navy multipurpose amphibious assault ship, the tenth to be named after the wasp, and the lead ship of her class. She was built by the Ingalls Shipbuilding division of Litton in Pascagoula, Mississippi.
Scorpion, a merchant schooner built at Baltimore, was purchased by the Continental Navy late in 1775 and renamed USS Wasp —the first of that name. She was outfitted at Baltimore during the winter of 1775–1776; and commissioned in December 1775 or January 1776, Capt. William Hallock in command.
The second USS Wasp of the United States Navy was a sailing sloop of war captured by the British in the early months of the War of 1812. She was constructed in 1806 at the Washington Navy Yard, was commissioned sometime in 1807, Master Commandant John Smith in command. Wasp's movements in 1807 and 1808 remain unrecorded; but, by 1809, she was cruising the eastern seaboard of the United States.