On December 7, 2024, an official ceremony was held in Livorno for the entry into the Italian Navy of the universal amphibious assault ship L 9890 Trieste, which became the largest warship built in Italy since World War II. The ceremony was attended by Italian President Sergio Mattarela.
The new Italian universal amphibious assault ship L 9890 Trieste (c) of the Italian Navy
As part of the Italian Navy, Trieste was nominally replaced by the light aircraft carrier C 551 Giuseppe Garibaldi. officially withdrawn from the fleet on October 1, 2024. The universal amphibious assault ship Trieste will become part of the Taranto-based 3rd Division of the Italian Navy and will become the flagship of the Amphibious Task Group (Amphibious Task Group - ATG), which, together with the Carrier Strike Group (CGS, with the aircraft carrier C 550 Cavour as the flagship), makes up the Expeditionary Task Force - ETF), which represents the main force of the Italian Navy fleet.
The construction of a universal landing ship (UDC, - Landing Helicopter Dock, LHD) for the Italian Navy was included in the construction plans of the Italian Navy in 2010, when design work on the ship began. The construction of the UDC was approved by the Law on the Fleet (Legge Navale) adopted by the Italian Parliament in May 2015 with a total financing cost of 5.428 billion euros. In addition to the construction of the UDC (for "humanitarian operations"), this law provided for the construction of six (then seven) large "patrol ships" of the RRA type for the Italian navy (the total planned cost of six units was announced at 2.62 billion euros, with an option for four more ships), an integrated supply ship LLS (planned cost 325 million euro, was built as Vulcano) and two multipurpose speedboats for special forces UNPAV (40 million euros, built by Intermarine).
In fact, the command of the Italian Navy, after the approval of the Law on the Fleet, pushed through a significant increase in the size and cost of the warships planned for construction under this act. As a result, by the time the contract was issued for it, the UDC had "grown" from the 20,000 tons of full displacement and 180-190 meters in length declared by the fleet during the discussion of the Law a year earlier to 38,000 tons of full displacement and 245 meters in length, turning into a full-fledged aircraft carrier (referred to as a "multipurpose UDC") with the planned basing of F-35B fighters (despite the fact that the Cavour aircraft carrier, previously introduced into the Italian Navy, has 30 thousand tons of full displacement and a maximum length of 244 meters). The ships of the RRA type have also turned into large multi-purpose frigates of a new generation, with a total cost of seven contracted ships of 3.9 billion euros.
The contract worth 1.126 billion euros for the construction of the UDC was issued by the Office of Naval Armaments (NAVARM) of the Italian Ministry of Defense on July 1, 2015 to the Raggruppamento Temporaneo di Impresa (RTI) consortium formed by the associations Fincantieri and Finmeccanica (now Leonardo). Of the specified contract value, Fincantieri accounted for 853 million euros and Leonardo for 273 million euros. Taking into account the additional work, the total contract value of the ship amounted to 1.171 billion euros.
The ceremony of the first steel cutting for the ship took place at the Fincantieri shipyard in Castellammare di Stabia near Naples on July 12, 2017, the official laying ceremony of the Trieste took place there on February 20, 2018, and the launch was carried out on May 25, 2019. After launching, the ship was towed to the Fincantieri shipyard in Mudgiano in La Spezia on January 7, 2020 for completion. On August 12, 2021, the ship went to sea for sea trials for the first time, and in general the testing process lasted more than three years. To date, Trieste continues to be based on Spice.
The new Italian UDC is a large ship, the total displacement of which is currently given in various sources from 37,500 to 38,000 tons. According to official Fincantieri data, the maximum length of the ship is 245 m, the length between the perpendiculars is 213.4 m, the maximum width is 36 m (along the waterline - 27.7 m), the draft is 7.2 m. The ship has a combined two-shaft diesel-gas turbine main power plant according to the CODOG scheme, including two Rolls-Royce MT30 afterburner gas turbines with a capacity of 48500 liters.C., two MAN 20V32/44CR diesel engines of 15,000 hp and two low-speed electric motors of 5.2 MW. Four MAN 9L32/44CR diesel generators with a capacity of 5.2 MW are used to generate electricity. The full speed of the ship is 25 knots, economic - 16 knots, small (under electric motors) - 10 knots. The cruising range is 7,000 miles economically, and the autonomy is 30 days.
The ship has a capacity of 1,064 people, of which 460 are full-time crew with an air group, and 604 are landing troops. In the reloading version, it is possible to accommodate more than 700 paratroopers or evacuees on board. There is a hospital with 27 beds. The UDC is equipped with a tank hold with equipment placement in lines up to 1200 linear meters (capable of receiving equipment weighing up to 60 tons) and a dock chamber measuring 50 by 15 m, accommodating four LCU/LCM type tank landing boats or one American-type LCAC landing hovercraft. The ship also accepts two small 15-meter high-speed landing boats.
The ship provides a hangar with a length of 107.8 m and a width of 21 m (an area of 2,600 sq m versus 2,500 sq m for the Cavour aircraft carrier) with permanent basing of 12 large AW101 or NH90 helicopters, or a combination of 18-20 large and medium helicopters, or alternatively, from four to eight F-35B aircraft and from four to nine helicopters. The flight deck, measuring 230 by 36 m, has nine helicopter pads or four landing positions for F-35B aircraft, and two lifts. A springboard with an angle of 12 degrees is installed for the F-35B takeoff. It is reported that the ship will finally be equipped to carry F-35B aircraft in the third quarter of 2025, after which it will go to the United States to practice F-35B flights from it.
Unlike the UDC of other countries of the world, Trieste received very powerful electronic equipment and weapons, including the Leonardo Kronos Dual Band radar system (Kronos StarFire) in the version with an AFAR X-band radar (in the future, it is also possible to install a full version of the Kronos Quad complex with a C-band antenna) and the Leonardo Kronos Power radar Shield with L-band AFAR. The Leonardo SPN-720 aviation flight control radar, the Leonardo CMS SADOC Mk 4 ACS and the Leonardo Black Snake towed gas (mainly for anti-torpedo protection), as well as powerful electronic warfare equipment, including the new Elettronica Zeus electronic warfare system and the Leonardo ODLS-20 firing jamming system, are installed. Armament includes 16 Sylver A50 vertical launchers for Aster 15 or Aster 30 missiles (or 64 CAMM-ER missiles), three 76 mm Leonardo Super Rapid Strales universal artillery systems and three 25 mm and six 12.7mm remote-controlled installations manufactured by Leonardo.
The ceremony of the official entry into the Italian Navy of the universal landing ship L 9890 Trieste, with the participation of Italian President Sergio Mattarela. Livorno, 07.12.2024 (c) Italian Navy
The new Italian universal amphibious assault ship L 9890 Trieste (c) of the Italian Navy
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