MINNEAPOLIS  — The U.S. Navy is naming a combat ship after the Twin Cities.

The Department of Defense said in a news release Thursday that the Navy’s next Freedom-class littoral combat ship would be named the USS Minneapolis/St. Paul. The department said the fast ships are used in mine, anti-submarine and surface warfare.

This is the second ship to have the name. The first was a submarine that was commissioned in 1984.

Construction of the ship will be led by a Lockheed Martin team in Marinette, Wisconsin.