THE NEW ITALIAN NAVY SHIPBUILDING PROGRAM: AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO NAVAL DESIGN

Captain Italian Navy Sergio SIMONE, Italian Navy General staff, Design Department, Head of Surface and Special Ships Design Office, Rome, Italy, sergio.simone@marina.difesa.it, ph.+39.06.3680.5419

Abstract

This paper will provide a general overview of the very ambitious shipbuilding program currently running within the Italian Navy.

After analyzing the new operational requirements come from the current new challenges, such as piracy, illegal immigration, asymmetric threats, civil community emergencies, the paper will describe how these new requirements led to the innovative design input the relevant bodies have been considering throughout the preliminary phases of the new vessels designs: design constraints quite unusual have been taken into account as a consequence of the mentioned recent missions scenarios. The unconventional process followed during the different design phase and the close cooperation with the industrial counterpart will be showed.

A quick description of the main features of each of the mentioned new programs will follow.