The 29th of May 2013 was a great day for European collaboration and for Italy. One of the most significant FREMM Program High Level Objective was achieved.
At Fincantieri-Muggiano premises (La Spezia) the Italian Frigate “Carlo BERGAMINI” was accepted by OCCAR and delivered to the Italian Navy. The vessel – whose overall design started in 2006 – is the First FREMM in the General Purpose Class configuration, committed by OCCAR within the framework of the Italian-French cooperation.
The ship represents the state of the art from a technological point of view, designed for achieving a maximum speed of over 27 knots and providing accommodation up to 200 people (crew and additional accommodation), granting high degree of flexibility to operate in most of the all current complex scenarios.
The ceremony was attended by the highest governmental and industrial authorities, testifying the importance of the acceptance of the ship for the Italian Participating State and the Italian Navy as well.
This great accomplishment is the result of hard work jointly performed by OCCAR, Italian Navy staffs and Industry which allowed successfully completing hundreds of demanding tests and completely recovering more than one year delay over the past three years, delivering the ship to the customer three months ahead of the contractual schedule.
This result is even more extraordinary if it is considered that the ship was lengthened of 3.6 metres in the last four months by complex and invasive working activities, which will guarantee more capabilities and flexibility to support flight operations with bigger helicopters such as EH-101, in any sea conditions.
The efficient platform together with the fully integrated and operational Combat System and an operative Logistic Support, make the ship ready for the use by the Italian Navy.
This outstanding result emphasizes the efficient and effective cooperation established between the main actors involved, OCCAR, the Participating States and Industry.
