Joint Fincantieri and Leonardo venture Orizzonte Sistemi Navali (OSN) has just signed a €3.7 billion contract for two new DDX destroyers for the Italian Navy.
The deal was signed with joint European procurement and lifecycle management body OCCAR (Organisation Conjointe de Coopération en matière d’Armement), which will oversee the project.
Fincantieri will build the hulls under a separate €1.8 billion subcontract to be signed in the coming weeks; a similar €1.7 billion subcontract will also be signed with Leonardo covering onboard systems, including its combat system.
The new warships will be 180m long, displace 13,500 tonnes, have a range of 4,000 nautical miles and will sail with a crew of 251.
As per a joint press statement by the two firms: “A true system of systems, it is capable of delivering large-scale defence and deterrence capabilities, while enabling the surface domain to converge with the underwater domain.”
It described the new destroyers’ integrated air and missile defence capabilities as “a significant generational leap.” It noted: “Thanks to the new-generation SADOC 5 C5I, a high-power, fully digital S-band AESA radar and MBDA’s weapon system, the DDX unit will feature an unprecedented IAMD (Integrated Air & Missile Defence) capability against missile, ballistic and hypersonic threats.”
The destroyers will incorporate Fincantieri’s Navis Sapiens design concept: a digital ship intelligently collecting, correlating and leveraging data generated by onboard systems, and sharing it with facilities ashore for predictive maintenance and logistics support.
The statement added: “At a speed of 15 knots, thanks to an innovative digital backbone developed by Fincantieri, each ship will be capable of managing unmanned assets such as underwater and surface drones in an integrated manner, strengthening capabilities for detection, discovery and protection against aerial threats, including ballistic threats, as well as surface and underwater threats.”
Fincantieri CEO Pierroberto Folgiero called the DDX programme “one of the most significant naval programmes launched in Italy in recent years.”
And Leonardo CEO Lorenzo Mariani added: “With these two new-generation units, the Armed Force will be able to rely on naval platforms offering advanced operational performance and capable of addressing a broad spectrum of threats.”
- You can read more details on the websites of Fincantieri and Leonardo
