Italian frigate Carabiniere (F 581)

Carabiniere was a frigate operated by the Italian Navy. Launched in 1967, the vessel served in the anti-submarine role during the Cold War until 1992. The ship was then recommissioned as a testing platform for new weapons systems, including Aster, finally retiring in 2008.

For other ships with the same name, see Italian ship Carabiniere.
Carabiniere' docked in Málaga in April 1989
History
Italy
Name: Carabiniere
Namesake: Carabiniere
Ordered: 1959
Builder: Cantieri Navali Riuniti (CNR), Riva Trigoso, Genoa
Laid down: 9 January 1965
Launched: 30 September 1967
Commissioned: 28 April 1968
Decommissioned: 19 November 2008
Motto: Italian: Nei secoli fedele “Faithful throughout the centuries”
General characteristics as built[1]
Type: Frigate
Displacement:
  • Standard: 2,000 long tons (2,032 t)
  • Full load: 2,700 long tons (2,743 t)
Length: 113.30 m (371 ft 9 in)
Beam: 13.10 m (43 ft 0 in)
Draught: 3.8 m (12 ft 6 in)
Propulsion:
Speed:
  • 28 kn (52 km/h; 32 mph) with gas turbines and diesels
  • 24 kn (44 km/h; 28 mph) with diesels only
Range: 3,500 nmi (6,500 km; 4,000 mi) at 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) (diesels)
Complement: 13 officers and 130 ratings
Sensors and
processing systems:
  • Radar:
  • SPS-12 air search
  • SPQ-2 air/surface search/navigation
  • RTN-30, 3 RTN-10X Orion fire control
  • Sonar:
  • SQS-43 hull sonar
  • SQA-10 VDS
Armament:
Aircraft carried: 2 × AB-204[2] or AB-212ASW[3] helicopters
Aviation facilities: Telescopic hangar for 2 medium helicopters.

Design

The ships of the Alpino-class frigate were authorised in the 1959/1960 Italian naval programme. The second ship in the class, Climene, was laid down in 1963 but was renamed Carabiniere in June 1965 prior to being launched in 1967.[4] Carabiniere was the third vessel in Italian service to be so named.[5]

Armament

As originally designed, Climene was to have armament based on the preceding Bergamini-class frigate.[4] Optimised for anti-submarine warfare, the vessel was designed around a hangar for an Agusta-Bell AB.204 helicopter. Close-in anti-submarine defence was provided by six 324 mm (13 in) Mark 44 torpedoes launched from Mark 32 torpedo tubes complemented by a single-barrel 305 mm (12 in) Menon mortar mounted forward. An early drawing shows the hangar straddled by a pair of 40 mm (1.6 in) guns with a single 76 mm (3 in) gun mounted fore and aft to provide anti-aircraft defence.[6] By 1962, the efficacy of the 40 mm was in doubt and the design was redrawn with three 76 mm guns, but even this was deemed insufficient. At launch, the vessel had no less than six single mounts.[2]

Propulsion

The propulsion system used a combined diesel and gas (CODAG) system as first trialled on the destroyer San Giorgio. Two diesels and one gas turbine were allied per shaft with a hydraulic coupling to enable the vessel to either run on diesel power alone, at low speed, or diesels, at high speed, and gas turbines simultaneously.[7] Two 4,200 shp (3,100 kW) Tosi OTV-320 diesels were paired with each 7,500 shp (5,600 kW) Tosi-Metrovick G.6 gas turbine to provide a maximum speed of 20 kn (37 km/h; 23 mph) on diesels alone and 28 kn (52 km/h; 32 mph) with all engines running.[6]

Service

Anti-submarine frigate
Carabiniere underway in the Mediterranean in 1979

Commissioned on 28 April 1968, Carabiniere served with the 1º Gruppo Navale d'Altura based at La Spezia. In 1973, when the school ship Amerigo Vespucci was inactive due to maintenance, Carabiniere was one of a number of Italian naval vessels used as a summer school cruise ship for students at the Italian Naval Academy. The vessel subsequently visited Istanbul, Odessa and Sevastopol alongside the destroyer Impavido.

During the 1970s, the ship was updated. The helicopters were replaced by the more capable AB-212ASW and a SLQ-A ECM system was added.[6] The ship was further upgraded in the 1980s. Hull-mounted sonar and the SLQ-747 ECM suite was fitted.[8]

Weapons testing ship

On 1 April 1992, the ship was decommissioned and re-equipped as a testing platform for a new generation of Italian naval weapons such as Aster and MILAS.[9] The gas turbine, Menon mortar, variable depth sonar and five 76 mm mounts, along with two fire control radars, were removed. Removing the gas turbines restricted the top speed to 20 kn (37 km/h; 23 mph).[10] Helicopter operating capability was also disabled.[11] A SPY-702 search radar was installed along with Sylver missile launchers.[10] The most obvious change was the installation of a large antenna midships for the EMPAR radar (also known as AN/SPY-790) which used the space previously occupied by the gas turbine exhaust. This combination of systems enabled Carabiniere to act as a testbed for PAAMS and SAAM-IT.[12]

Carabiniere re-entered service in 31 December 1994 as a dedicated test ship but retained the penant designation of a frigate.[5] The vessel undertook successful live firing trials of both Aster 15 from Sylver A-43 launchers and Aster 30 from Sylver A-50 launchers.[12]

Carabiniere was finally decommissioned on 19 November 2008 in the presence of the Naval Chief of Staff Paolo La Rosa and Head of the Carabiniere Gianfrancesco Siazzu.[13][14]

References
  1. Avery, Derek. Modern Warships. London: Collins. pp. 130–131. ISBN 0-00-458855-X.
  2. Blackman, Raymond V.B. (1971). Jane's Fighting Ships 1971–72'. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co., Ltd. p. 187. ISBN 0-354-00096-9.
  3. Moore, John (1985). Jane's Fighting Ships 1985–86. London: Jane's Yearbooks. p. 273. ISBN 0-710-60814-4.
  4. Fitzsimons, Bernard (1979). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of 20th Century Weapons and Warfare. Milwaukee: Purnell Reference Books. p. 90.
  5. Il Secolo XIX (2008). "Nave Carabiniere ammaina bandiera" (in Italian). Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  6. Gogin, Ivan (2015). "ALPINO frigates (1968)". Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  7. Fortunato, E.; Clements, H.A. (1979). "Marine Reversing Gear Incorporating Single Reversing Hydraulic Coupling and Direct-Drive Clutch for Each Turbine" (PDF). ASME 1979 International Gas Turbine Conference and Exhibit and Solar Energy Conference. American Society of Mechanical Engineers: 4–5. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  8. Wertheim, Eric (2005). The Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World. Annapolis MD: Naval Institute Press. p. 346–348. ISBN 9781591149347. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  9. Vlašić, Piše Toma (1994). "Talijanska Ratna Mornarica". Hrvatski Vojnik. 71: 83.
  10. Saunders, Stephen (2005). Jane's Fighting Ships 2005–2006. London: Jane's Yearbooks. p. 385. ISBN 0-71-062692-4.
  11. En Mezzi Militari. "Unità Esperienze Tecnologiche Carabiniere (1 unità)" (in Italian). Archived from the original on 29 September 2015.
  12. Galati, Gaspare (2016). 100 Years of Radar. New York: Springer. p. 234–235. ISBN 9783319005836.
  13. Ministero della Difensa (2008). "La Spezia – Ultimo ammaina bandiera per Nave Carabiniere" (in Italian). Archived from the original on 29 July 2010.
  14. Arma dei Carabinieri (2008). "Ultimo ammaina bandiera della Nave Carabiniere" (in Italian). Archived from the original on 8 December 2008. Retrieved 27 January 2020.
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