The Final Official Acceptance (FOA) ceremony of the third of PPA class Raimondo Montecuccoli (P 432) took place on 27 September on board the ship moored at Fincantieri’s Muggiano shipyard (La Spezia).

The ceremony saw the participation of V. Adm Antonio Natale representing the Chief of the Italian Navy, the director of the Italian MoD Naval Armaments Directorate V. Adm. Giuseppe Abbamonte, and the director of OCCAR-EA Joachim Sucker, which organization manages the PPA programme on behalf of Italian MoD. The temporary industrial consortium responsible for the ship’s development, production and In-Service Support (ISS) was represented by Dario Deste, head of Fincantieri’s Military Vessel division and Marco De Fazio, head of Leonardo’s Electronics division.

The event was preceded by the Final Official Acceptance Review held on 26 September at Muggiano shipyard where representatives of Italy, OCCAR and the industry finalized the contractual documentation, according to OCCAR press statement.

At the end of a complex and articulated sea trials test and qualification process carried out alongside crew training by the Italian Navy’s New Shipbuilding and Outfitting Centre (MARINALLES), OCCAR, the industry consortium and Italian MoD Naval Armaments Directorate (NAVARM) local office, the delivered Montecuccoli PPA transitioned under the First Naval Division (COMDINAV UNO) based in La Spezia, to shortly begin a training programme of increasing difficulty aimed at achieving full operational readiness.

“The multi-purpose PPAs have been designed (with a common platform and propulsion) in three different (combat system and weapon package) configurations – PPA Light, Light Plus and Full – based on the best compromise between capabilities and available funding when they were procured,” recently remarked Vice Adm Enrico Credendino, the Italian Navy Chief of Staff.  The Italian Navy has already received the first two PPA Light – Paolo Thaon di Revel and Francesco Morosini – respectively in March and October 2022 and the Raimondo Montecuccoli first PPA Light Plus, while OCCAR and the industrial consortium are working at different stages of sea-trials, out-fitting and construction on additional two PPA Light Plus- and two PPA Full-configured vessels.

The Raimondo Montecuccoli’s Light Plus configuration provides a new generation air defence system, enhanced electronic warfare and command and control capabilities to cope with present and future air and surface threats, as the same platform maintains all the anti-surface and anti-air warfare capabilities offered by the gun armament suite installed on the two PPA Light configured vessels already in service.

The PPA Light Plus main distinctive capabilities include the MBDA Italia SAAM ESD (Surface Anti-Air Missile – Extended Self Defence) PPA air defence missile system, the new Leonardo four fixed-face (4FF) C-band AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) Kronos Quad radar of the Dual Band Radar (DBR) (X/C band) suite installed on the PPA Full platform, the complete Electronic Warfare Suite (EWS) from Elettronica and additional operator consoles for the Leonardo SADOC Mk 4 Combat Management System (CMS).

An evolution of the air defence system installed on the FREMM Bergamini-class frigates, the SAAM ESD PPA on the Montecuccoli is centred on two 8-cell A50 Naval Group vertical launching system (VLS) for the family of MBDA’s Aster surface-to-air missiles including the future Aster 30 Block 1 NT and C2 working for the first time with the new Leonardo 4FF AESA C-band Kronos Quad radar exploiting new architecture and GaN (Gallium Nitride) T/R (transmitter/receiver) modules technology in addition to the advanced radar system manager, providing enhanced air defence capabilities against present and future threats including ballistic missiles. With more than 2,500 T/R modules for each fixed face array, the Kronos Quad can conduct ship self-defence, area defence, long range detection and ballistic missile defence, air & sea surveillance, gunfire support and active missile guidance (uplink). Capable of operating as a stand-alone sensor or in cooperation with the X-band Kronos Starfire in the DBR configuration installed on the PPA Full, the Kronos Quad have autonomous capability of search and tracking tactical ballistic missiles (TBM) up to the 600 km class and of tracking TBM of the 1,300 km class upon external designation, according to Leonardo.  

Thanks to the advanced system manager, the radar is also working together, exploiting integrated functions, with Elettronica full EW suite, ensuring an higher level of detection, situational awareness, intelligence, protection and electronic attack. In addition to the RESM, CESM and a command and control unit called EWMU (Electronic Warfare Management Unit) already installed on the PPA Light, the fully integrated, compact, optimized but still scalable EW suite, exploiting latest digital processing and solid state AESA technology also includes the RECM capability on board the PPA Light Plus. The two antenna phased array actuators (RECM) are based on the latest active phased array design using GaN T/R modules, combining high performances with reduced dimensions and weight compared to the GaAs modules, according to Elettronica. The fully solid-state architecture also ensures high ERP and graceful degradation in case of multiple T/R module failures.

To managed the added capabilities, the Leonardo SADOC 4 CMS will receive four additional multifunction consoles (MFC) to be installed in the combat operation centre (COC) – where space and interfaces are already set up – behind the operational combat bridge, the later accommodating the Naval Cockpit. These add to the 22 MFC already installed on the PPA Light COC, operational combat bridge and back-up COC. The PPA is also the first Italian Navy’s surface platform cyber protected since the programme inception.

Except for the Leonardo X-band Kronos Starfire 4FF installed on PPA Light and PPA Full – in the latter case as part of the DBR -, the PPA Light Plus combat suite featuring the systems already installed on the Light-configured platform, which includes the Leonardo DSS-IRST (Distributed Static Staring IRST) with only two EO/IR directional surveillance and tracking heads and the NA-30S Mk2 dual-band radar/EO fire control system for gun systems. The latter include the Leonardo 127/64 mm LightWeight (LW) with automatic ammunition handling system and capable to use the full range of long-range guided/unguided Vulcano family round and the Leonardo Sovraponte or Single Deck 76/62 mm providing extended inner-layer defence against missiles and asymmetric threats thanks to DART guided ammunitions, and capable to fire the longer range unguided and under test and qualification guided Vulcano 76 mm rounds, alongside the two 25 mm remotely controlled mounts. The PPA Light and Light Plus configuration have been developed with the fitted for approach allowing every system installed on the more capable PPA Full configuration to be retrofitted to the other configuration, enhancing operational flexibility and facilitating growth during the ship life-cycle. Both PPA light and Light Plus are ‘Fitted for’ Level 1, having space, installations, power, cooling and connecting cables for upgrading to Full configuration. The latter is characterized by a full spectrum missions capability, being equipped with the DBR radar suite, Black Snake anti-torpedo suite and ATAS towed sonar system, in addition to full DSS-IRST and OLDS 20 decoy launchers, all provided by Leonardo, and full EW suite by Elettronica. The armament package will also include the MBDA Italia Teseo Mk 2E long-range anti-ship/land deep strike missiles and Aster Block 1NT missiles, both once available.