The Italian Navy 🇮🇹 announces the deployment to the Indo-Pacific of the third PPA built by the Fincantieri shipyard, the "Raimondo Montecuccoli" (P432), with air defense capability. The ship will sail through the Panama Canal and will subsequently make stops in at least Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia.
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These vessels, built by Fincantieri, incorporate numerous technological innovations and offer multi-mission capability. Italy plans to acquire a total of 16 units in different weapons configurations. The Light+ variant, to which this third unit belongs, displaces 4,900 tons, has a length of 143 meters, is capable of reaching a speed of 31 knots and is armed with a 127mm Oto Melara mount, a 76mm Strales mount, two Oerlikon KBA B06 remote mounts, 16 vertical launch cells for Aster or CAMM-ER missiles, and space and weight reserve for 8 Teseo/Otomat Mk-2E anti-ship missiles and for two triple torpedo tube mounts, plus a double hangar with capacity for 2 SH-90… And they call it a patrol boat.
