La Spezia/Italy – 2 October 2024, The Final Official Acceptance (FOA) ceremony of the Forth Multipurpose Patrol Ship (PPA4) delivered to the Italian Navy has been successfully completed.
The PPA4 FOA ceremony saw the participation of Vice Admiral Andrea Gueglio representing the Chief of the Italian Navy, the Director of the Italian Naval Armaments Directorate Vice Admiral Giuseppe Abbamonte, and the Director of OCCAR-EA, Mr. Joachim Sucker. Eng. Attilio Dapelo (Fincantieri) and Eng. Marco De Fazio (Leonardo Company) represented the Temporary Consortium responsible for the ship’s development, production and In-Service Support.
The event was preceded by the Final Official Acceptance Review (FOAR) held on 1 October, 2024 at the Muggiano shipyard where the representatives of Italy, OCCAR and the Industry finalized the contractual documentation.
“Giovanni delle Bande Nere” is the fourth PPA and the first one in “FULL” configuration. This ship signifies the most important milestone of the PPA Programme, as she is the most complete in the class, holding/owning remarkable capabilities, thanks to a very advanced set of sub-systems developed as part of the Programme. This version has the complete Communications Suite, the complete Electronic Warfare System suite, the Dual Band Radar (with fixed faces in both X-band and C-band), the SAAM-ESD missile system (able to launch Aster 15 and Aster 30 missiles), the 76mm Over-the-Bridge GUN, the 127mm GUN and the complete SONAR suite which gives the Full version the possibility to operate also in the Anti-Submarine Warfare domain allowing to face every operational scenario of the so-called Maritime Warfare.
The ship’s delivery to Italy represents a decisive and fundamental step forward for the Programme, as the Italian Navy will soon have a new ship to integrate into its fleet, joining Thaon di Revel, the first PPA delivered in March 2022, Francesco Morosini delivered in October 2022 and Raimondo Montecuccoli delivered in September 2023.
The ship has been named after "Giovanni delle Bande Nere" - an Italian leader of the Renaissance and a member of the Medici family (Forlì 1498 - Mantua 1526). The origin of the Bande Nere can be traced back to the companies that the young Giovanni de' Medici commanded during the war of Urbino in 1517.