06. October 2011

The first-of-class Italian FREMM frigate “Carlo BERGAMINI” starts sea trials

In accordance with the Programme schedule, last Thursday, the 6th October 2011, the first-of-class Italian FREMM (general purpose) vessel Carlo BERGAMINI sailed for the first time, starting the contractor sea trials programme. The scheduled milestone of the “first sea going”, considered as an important goal for Italian FREMM Programme, was reached thanks to the commitment of Industry which was able to avoid any delay with respect to the tight programme agreed with OCCAR.

Two hundred people (Italian Navy, OCCAR and Industry) were very active onboard at a sunny day.

The excellent sea conditions allowed to conduct many familiarisation activities and to fulfil the busy daily trials programme, mainly focused on initial testing of the performances and manoeuvrability of the ship powered by the electrical propulsion.

In addition, some important combat system trials were carried out, testing almost all of the radar (Navigation radar, surface search radar) and communications (VHF, UHF, HF) devices and performing basic CMS & functional integration tests.

The second set of sea trials is currently planned for the 18th of October.