INFOGRAPHICS #58: Future Surface Combatants Vol. III (Arrowhead 140PL, Thaon di Revel-class, F126-class)

Written by D-Mitch

In this post, I include some of the infographics I made and published on social media, about new surface combatants that are under construction and about to enter service in the near future.

 

1. Arrowhead 140PL type frigates of the Polish Navy (3 ships)

Arrowhead 140PL class frigate of the Polish Navy

INFOGRAPHICS #57: Future Surface Combatants Vol. II (DDX, Istif-class and FAC55-class)

Written by D-Mitch

In this post, I include some of the infographics I made and published on social media, about new surface combatants that are under construction and about to enter service in the near future.

 

1. DDX (under development) class destroyer of the Italian Navy (2 ships) 

 

DDX (unknown class), the future destroyer of the Italian Navy. High resolution image here.

 

INFOGRAPHICS #39: The major surface combatants of the most powerful European Navies in 2035

Written by D-Mitch

European frigates, ESPS Blas de Lezo (F103), FGS Sachsen (F219)
and TCG Saligreis (F246), in close formation.

In this short article, similar to a complete analysis I did in the past on The major surface combatants of the most powerful European Navies in 2035, I illustrate the six most powerful surface combatant fleets in Europe by 2035 in a single graph, based on the shipbuilding programs that have announced and only. Russian Navy, as a naval superpower, is excluded from the graph. This time, the new graph, does not include only those countries that are located wholly or predominantly in Europe but also countries that exist partially within geographical Europe. Thus Turkish Navy is included as well. In this post, I will mention briefly some additions and changes regarding the previous article but I will not analyze more the developments and the designs, because I believe the before mentioned article covered the topic to a large extent.

FLEETS #18: Italian Navy, Japanese Navy, French Navy (v.II) and Turkish Navy in WWI

The following images illustrate the most important classes of warships that were in service with the navies of Italy, Japan, France (version 2) and Turkey (Ottoman Empire) during the World War I. More posts will follow for your collection of current naval fleets but also of fleets from the past.

Italian Navy (Regia Marina) in WWI

Click to enlarge and save the image to view the details - Italian Navy in WWI

The major surface combatants of the most powerful European Navies in 2030 - An analysis of the future developments

Written by D-Mitch

In this article, I will describe briefly the future developments in the major surface combatant fleet of the five most powerful in Europe, the five navies that historically maintain and develop a strong naval fleet of very advanced warships. But what do we mean when we talk about surface combatant? According to the Office of Naval Research of the United States Navy, "..surface combatants (or surface ships or surface vessels) are a subset of naval warships which are designed for warfare on the surface of the water, with their own weapons. They are generally ships built to fight other ships, submarines or aircraft, and can carry out several other missions including counter-narcotics operations and maritime interdiction. Their primary purpose is to engage space, air, surface, and submerged targets with weapons deployed from the ship itself, rather than by manned carried craft.". The term is primarily used to mean any modern vessel type that is not a submarine; although a "surface ship" may range in size from a small cutter to a large cruiser, the largest surface combatant today in any Navy.

WARSHIPS OF THE PAST: Giuseppe Garibaldi cruiser of the Italian Navy

Written by D-Mitch



Colorized photo of Giuseppe Garibaldi cruiser in the '60s

Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian Duca degli Abruzzi-class light cruiser, the latest evolution of the light cruisers Condottieri class, that served in the Navy of the Kingdom of Italy (Regia Marina) during World War II. The ship was named after the Italian general and politician and nationalist Giuseppe Garibaldi who played a large role in the history of Italy. The cruiser was laid down in 1933 and completed in 1936. She was commissioned in 1937. The 12,000t cruiser was initially armed with ten (10) 6in (152mm) guns in two triple and two twin turrets, a variety of medium and light guns, six (6) 533mm torpedo tubes while she could carry up to four (4) IMAM Ro.43 reconnaissance single float seaplanes that were launched from ship's two catapults. Active with the Italian Navy (Regia Marina) during World War II, she participated in numerous operations. Along with her convoy escort duties, shore bombardment and British convoy interception, she was present at Punto Stilo/Calabria. She missed the Battle of Cape Matapan, having been detached to Brindisi immediately before. On July 28, 1941 she was torpedoed by the submarine, HMS Upholder, and returned to port with 700 tons of water. With the Italian Armistice, she sailed to Malta in September 1943. Except for a very brief period of time on anti-blockade runner duties, she spent the remainder of the war in transport and training duties.



WARSHIPS OF THE PAST: Vittorio Veneto helicopter cruiser of the Italian Navy

Written by D-Mitch

Vittorio Veneto, the last cruiser of Italian Navy

Some years after the commissioning of the two helicopter cruisers of Andrea Doria class, the Italian Navy ordered an enlarged version of a helicopter cruiser. The new 180-meter cruiser received the name Vittorio Veneto (C550) and she entered in service with the Italian Navy in 1969. A second ship of the same design, the Italia, was cancelled. Instead, Italy proceeded later in the construction of Giuseppe Garibaldi light aircraft carrier, an aircraft carrying cruiser as it was classified in the early years of its service. Vittorio Veneto had a similar layout as the smaller Andrea Doria class helicopter cruisers, but with two elevators in the large (40x18.5-metre) flight deck and the hangar positioned below the flight deck. The ship was built from the keel up as guided missile cruiser forward and helicopter carrier aft. Unlike the Andrea Doria class ships, Vittorio Veneto had two combination mast/funnels, rather than separate funnels like the ships of the Andrea Doria class. Vittorio Veneto was a fast ship especially for her size as she was propelled by two steam turbines providing 73,000 shp, for a maximum speed of 32 knots. Similarly to Andrea Doria class vessels, she had a sets of stabilizing fins to improve stability for helicopter operations.

WARSHIPS OF THE PAST: Andrea Doria class helicopter cruisers of the Italian Navy

Written by D-Mitch 



Andrea Doria, the lead-ship of the class, after its
modernization in the late '70s

Determined to provide high quality and accurate information on naval warfare in an easy understandable manner to a broad audience I created my first personal webpage, the Naval Analyses. However, Naval Analyses is not limited only to the naval warfare of today as I have already included in this page since its inception about 10 months ago, Fleets, Photos and Infographics of navies and warships of the past. So with this new post, I begin a new category of short articles where I summarize the main features of some very important former naval classes. The Sachsen class, which was the most selected class in the poll (the poll closed on April 1st)  for the Analysis of this month, it will be published before the end of April or the latest in the first weeks of May (I am really sorry about that!). In this article, I summarize the Andrea Doria class cruisers, the first class of helicopters cruisers of the Italian Navy.



Durand de la Penne class destroyers of the Italian Navy

Written by D-Mitch

D560 Luigi Durand de la Penne, lead ship of the class.
Photo: Marina Militare Italiana

Elegant lines and powerful armament. These are the characteristics of the Durand de la Penne class destroyers of Italian Navy (Marina Militare), the last class of non-stealth major surface combatants in service with Italian Navy and some of the most beautiful and well-armed warships ever built. Two ships belong in this class of anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) destroyers, the Luigi Durand de la Penne and the Francesco Mimbelli. The ships were built by Fincantieri and they were commissioned in 1993. Initially there was a plan to built four ships of the class but the second pair was cancelled as Italy joined France in the Horizon project for AAW destroyers. The ships of the class are advanced and quite capable to perform any kind of mission given due to their extensive armament and electronic equipment.

NAVAL FORCES #5: Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) collection ships of European Navies

Dupuy de Lôme, the most advanced SIGINT ship in any
European Navy today (2015)

Signals intelligence (often abbreviated as SIGINT) is intelligence-gathering by interception of signals, whether communications between people (communications intelligence - abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication (electronic intelligence - abbreviated to ELINT). The data gathered are typically pertinent to the electronics of an opponent's defense network, especially the electronic parts such as radars, surface-to-air missile systems, aircraft, etc. ELINT can be used to detect ships and aircraft by their radar and other electromagnetic radiation; commanders have to make choices between not using radar, intermittently using it, or using it and expecting to avoid defenses. COMINT, as it was mentioned in the previous paragraph, it is a sub-category of signals intelligence that engages in dealing with messages or voice information derived from the interception of foreign communications. Modern navies use naval vessels with sophisticated equipment for this purpose, the so-called spy ships.

FLEETS #7: Royal Netherlands Navy, Royal Norwegian Navy and Italian Navy today

Written by D-Mitch

This is the fifth article about various countries' navies today. In these articles, I briefly describe a country's naval fleet by reporting the ships in each type/category of warships and by providing a nice image where all the types of warships are illustrated and the units of its class are reported. I include the vessels that will enter in service this year and I have excluded those that are about to be decommissioned. I deliberately excluded many classes of auxiliary ships; those that they have "0" defence capacity and those that have secondary roles such as hydrographic survey ships, tugs, depollution vessels and training ships.

Comandanti class and Sirio class offshore patrol vessels of the Italian Navy

Written by D-Mitch

Comandanti class patrol vessel.
Photo: Marina Militare Italiana

Sirio class patrol vessel.
Photo: Marina Militare Italiana

The most modern offshore patrol vessels in service with Italian Navy (Marina Militare) are the ships of the Comandanti and Sirio classes, two classes of the same design that share some common equipment.  The four patrol vessels of the Comandanti class were built by Fincantieri and they were delivered to the Italian Navy the period 2002-2004. The program is also known as Nuove Unità Minori Combattenti (NUMC). The last vessel, the Foscari, was built with composite superstructure made off glass reinforced plastic instead of steel having in that way less mass and therefore resulting in reduced fuel consumption and improved life cycle of the ship. The two vessels of the Sirio class, also known as Nuove Unità di Pattugliamento d'Altura (NUPA), were commissioned in 2005. The NUPA program gives less emphasis on stealth characteristics, performance and equipment for operations in low intensity conflict environment such as NUMC program as the main mission of the Sirio class patrol vessels is to safeguard national interests in the fields of anti-pollution and rescue services. Therefore, among others, Sirio boats lack the main naval gun and the fire control system, they have less powerful engines and they have no hangar but only a flight deck. However the ships have all the provisions to be equipped as their older sisters. Both classes can various missions such as patrolling and surveillance at sea, control of maritime traffic and inspections, humanitarian relief operations, search and rescue operations, control of the maritime borders, protection of merchant shipping and fisheries, support operations and many more. 

FLEETS #4: Italian Navy, German Navy, Russian Navy and Japanese Navy in WWII

The following images illustrate the most important classes of warships which were in service with the navies of Italy, Germany, Russia and Japan during the World War II. More posts will follow for your collection of current naval fleets but also of fleets from the past.

Italian Navy (Regia Marina) in  WWII

Click to enlarge and save the image to view the details - Italian Navy in WWII

FLEETS #2: Italian Navy (Marina Militare Italiana) in 2014

A nice work that depicts all the Italian Navy warships that are in service by the members of shipbucket.com Enrr, Little Bird, Lazer_one, MConrads and MichoshiK.

Save the image to view the details: Italian Navy in 2014

Bergamini class (FREMM) frigates of the Italian Navy

Written by D-Mitch

Italian Navy Bergamini class FREMM variants in formation

Bergamini class is the Italian variant of the FRigate European Multi-Mission (FREMM) class, a class of frigates designed by the French DCNS and the Italian Ficantieri in a joint program to replace the existing destroyers and frigates within the French and Italian navies. As we mentioned in the article about the French variant, the Aquitaine class, the frigates between the two navies share some general characteristics, weapons and systems but also have several differences in the equipment related to propulsion system, electronic equipment and weapons following the different requirements of both navies. The Italian Navy (Marina Militare Italiana) is building two variants/versions of Bergamini class frigates, one for ASW (Anti-Submarine Warfare) role and one for General Purpose (GP) role; in this article both variants will be described. Italian Navy aims to replace the eight (8) frigates of Maestrale class and the four (4) frigates of the Lupo class with ten (10) Bergamini class which are devided in three variants including the AAW for the last pair of ships. Bergamini class is a class of stealth frigates with advanced Anti-Aircraft Warfare (AAW) capabilities featuring a common sensor and weapons package based on MBDA’s SAAM-ESD (Extended Self-Defence) area defence system, including Selex ES MFRA EMPAR-derived C-band multifunction radar with active phased array antenna and Aster 15 and Aster 30 missiles in A50silos. EMPAR MFRA is an evolved version of the EMPAR radar (embarked on Orizzonte class destroyers and the Cavour aircraft carrier). In addition to that, each variant is specialized in a specific role, GP or ASW, with increased equipment to perform this particular role.

Horizon class destroyers of the French and Italian Navy

Written by D-Mitch

The four vessels in the Horizon class in formation

The Horizon/Orrizonte class destroyers is a class of four hich-tech stealth Anti-Air Warfare (AAW) ships which were commissioned the period 2008-2009 in French Navy (Marine Nationale) and Italian Navy (Marina Militare Italiana).  Two ships were built for each navy, under a multi-national collaboration between the two countries, the Horizon SAS. Horizon SAS was a temporary consortium of companies between Italy and France (50% Italy - 50% France) provided by Orrizonte Sistemi Navali (joint venture between Fincantieri and Finmeccanica) and Armaris (joint venture between DCN and Thales). The project originally included also the United Kingdom  however due to differing requirements from the Royal Navy for a heavier ship that can provide air defence to a fleet that operates in hostile waters, the United Kingdom proceeded alone to develop the Type 45 destroyer instead. The main differences in the requirements were in the Vertical Launching System (VLS) and the scanned array radar. Though four units were planned for each navy, only two were built for each one. The French vessels, Forbin and Chevalier Paul, replaced the two AAW vessels of Suffren class while the Italian vessels of the Andrea Doria class, Andrea Doria and Caio Duilio, replaced the two AAW vessels of Audace class. The armament and equipment are almost identical between the vessels in service with France and Italy. The class carries a variety of weapons and electronic equipment and it is capable for any kind of mission. Great emphasis was given on the stealth performance and thus tilted superstructures, composite materials and special coatings contribute to a very small radar signature.