USS Minneapolis Saint Paul will be commissioned in Duluth in May

Saturday, March 19th, 2022 -- 7:04 AM

A United States Navy combat ship named after the Twin Cities will be commissioned in the Twin Ports this spring.

The USS Minneapolis Saint Paul, LCS-21, a littoral combat ship built at Marinette, Wisconsin's Fincantieri Marinette Marine on Lake Michigan, will be commissioned in the Port of Duluth-Superior at 10 a.m. on May 21, 2022, the Minnesota Navy League said in a news release Thursday.

Members of the public can be considered for attendance by requesting tickets at navyleaguemn.org/commissioning-ticket-reservations

A venue has not been chosen. The Navy League said the COVID-19 pandemic means the the commissioning will have "extremely limited" attendance.

The USS Minneapolis Saint Paul was christened and launched into the Menominee River on June 15, 2019, at the Fincantieri Marinette Marine Yard, but problems with the vessel surfaced during trials and the commissioning, which will be the first for a U.S. Navy vessel in Minnesota, was delayed in both 2020 and 2021.

Ships in the same class as the USS Minneapolis Saint Paul had a "design defect associated with bearings in the combining gear's high-speed clutch" which required a repair, the Minnesota Navy League said last year.

The budget for the USS Minneapolis Saint Paul, a 389-foot-littoral combat ship, was estimated to be about $360 million. It was designed with waterjet technology to travel at speeds of up to 50 mph and is expected to become the first anti-submarine warfare littoral combat ship in the U.S. naval fleet. The vessel is designed for nimble shallow-water and near-shore combat. (Duluth News Tribune)

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