25. February 2015

First Steel Cutting Ceremony for the 8th Italian FREMM

Another important milestone in the FREMM programme was successfully achieved on 25th February 2015 with the first steel cutting of the 8th Italian FREMM frigate. The event was marked by a ceremony at the Fincantieri shipyard in Riva Trigoso. This new FREMM ship will be in the General Purpose configuration andwill be delivered to the Italian Navy at the beginning of 2019.

Captain Sica (Director of UTNAV Genova) and Mr. Maggiolo (Director of Production of Fincantieri Shipyard in Riva Trigoso) during the first steel cutting ceremony

The FREMM programme is the most important joint initiative to date between European industries in the field of naval defence. The programme foresees the building of ten Frigates for the Italian Navy (eight already confirmed with the option of two more) and eleven Frigates for the French Navy. The FREMM ships are characterized by a high level of flexibility, and are specifically designed to operate in multiple scenarios.

First steel cutting of the 8th Italian FREMM

The other Italian FREMM frigates are currently at different stage of production: Bergamini, the First Of Class (FOC) in General Purpose (GP) configuration, is fully operational and employed by the Italian Navy; Fasan, the FOC in Anti Submarine Warfare (ASW) configuration, will finish the Warranty Works period by the end of April 2015 and then will be fully operational; Margottini, the Follow On Ship (FOS) n° 1 in ASW configuration, is soon to start its Warranty Works period; Carabiniere, the FOS n° 2 in ASW configuration, will be delivered to the Italian Navy by the end of April this year; Alpino, the FOS n° 3 in ASW configuration, was launched on 13th December 2014; Rizzo, the FOS n° 1 in GP configuration, will be launched in February 2016; and the 7th Italian FREMM is under construction.