Italian Navy's final ASW FREMM is delivered, ready for service

[Zarvan]

ITS Alpino, the Italian Navy's latest FREMM frigate and its final ASW variant, was delivered on 30 September. Source: Carlo Martinelli
Key Points

• Italian Navy receives its fifth FREMM, the fourth and final ASW variant
• The ship's delivery had been postponed, but in return it is ready for immediate service following its handover

The Italian Navy has received it fifth FREMM (Frégate Européenne Multi-Mission) frigate, and the fourth and final ship modified as an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) variant.

The 6,700-tonne multimission frigate ITS Alpino was handed over to the navy on 30 September, during a ceremony attended by Timothy Rowntree, director of European defence procurement agency OCCAR, which is managing the programme on Italy's behalf; Rear Admiral Matteo Bisceglia, head of the Italian defence ministry's naval armaments procurement directorate; Giacomo Sardina, chief executive officer of Orizzonte Sistemi Naval and representing the joint venture between Fincantieri and Leonardo as the FREMM programme prime contractor; and Angelo Fusco, Fincantieri's vice director for naval programmes.

Alpino 's delivery represents a major milestone in the programme, as the final ASW variant; however, it was also the first ship to be delivered with all the approved engineering change proposals (ECPs) implemented before the ship was handed over.

Rear Adm Bisceglia noted that the team delivering the programme had been particularly focused on introducing all the enhancements and lessons identified from previous shipbuilding activities, including other ships in the FREMM class, as well as the Andrea Doria/Horizon-class destroyer and Cavour-class aircraft carrier programmes.

"This effort", he said, "allows the new frigate to have already reached full operational capability and immediate readiness for service, reducing to a minimum the dock activities at the end of the one-year warranty period, [delivering] important cost savings and reduced out-of-service periods."

Achieving this, the admiral added, had required a postponement in the ship's delivery, but he argued that this delay was "counterbalanced by follow-on zero retrofit actions and immediate ship availability".

The ASW focus in Alpino and its three sister ships is characterised by a sonar suite centred on the Thales Underwater Systems CAPTAS 4 low-frequency active/passive variable depth sonar.

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