First PPA in ‘light plus' configuration delivered to Italian Navy

The third Italian Navy PPA, Raimondo Montecuccoli, was formally handed over at Fincantieri's Muggiano shipyard on 27 September. (Fincantieri)

Fincantieri has delivered the Italian Navy's first multi-purpose offshore patrol ship (Pattugliatore Polivalente d'Altura: PPA) configured for medium-intensity (light plus) operations.

Raimondo Montecuccoli (P 432) was handed over during a formal ceremony held at Fincantieri's shipyard in Muggiano, Trieste, on 27 September.

Laid down in November 2018 and launched in March 2021, Raimondo Montecuccoli is the third of seven PPAs being built by Fincantieri as part of the Italian Navy's fleet renewal plan.

The PPAs are being delivered in three configurations based on a common platform. The variants – ranging from a ‘light' version configured for low-intensity patrol duties up to a ‘full combat' version – are differentiated according to their weapon and sensor outfit. The 143 m-long ships are based on a modular design to enable rapid reconfiguration from low- to high-end if required.

The first two PPAs – Paolo Thaon di Revel (P 430) and Francesco Morosini (P 431) – were delivered to the Italian Navy in 2022 in the ‘light' configuration, which features a gun-only weapon package (a Leonardo 127/64 lightweight main gun, a 76/62 mm Super Rapid Strales/Sovraponte ‘single deck' multirole gun, and two 25 mm remotely controlled guns) for limited air defence, a combat system based on Leonardo's Kronos StarFire X-band active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, and a scaled-down version of Leonardo's distributed static surveillance – infrared search and track (DSS-IRST) system.

Raimondo Montecuccoli