The ceremony was attended by the Deputy Chief of the Italian Navy, Vice Admiral Giuseppe Berutti Bergotto, by the Director of the Directorate of Naval Armaments (NAVARM) and Programme Committee Representative of the PPA Programme, Vice Admiral Giuseppe Abbamonte and by the OCCAR-EA Deputy Director Mr. Massimo Scialpi. The Fincantieri Naval Vessels BU Director Mr Dario Deste, attended the event along with senior managers of the two companies, Fincantieri and Leonardo, at the heart of the temporary consortium, responsible for the development and production of the seven PPA ships.
“The Multipurpose Combat Ships (MCSs) as the PPAs are now designated internationally, are the result of a challenge in which the Navy and industry believed together. These are units with advanced capabilities and great flexibility of use. These ships are a real operational enabler…… creating a discontinuity with the past in terms of technical solutions, these are ships with scalable operational capabilities, designed to be updated over time. A far-sighted choice,” said Vice Admiral Giuseppe Berutti Bergotto, Deputy Chief of the Italian Navy, speaking during the event.
The seventh and last MCS of the Thaon di Revel class to be built under the original programme, the Domenico Millelire (P 436) was laid down on July 2022 and under the supervision of OCCAR-EA PPA Programme Division is planned to be delivered to the Italian Navy by the third quarter of 2026, becoming the second in the “Full” configuration with ASuW, AAW and ASW capabilities.
Although sharing a common platform, the MCSs have been built in three different configurations: “Light” with self-defence capabilities to which belongs the Paolo Thaon di Revel (P430) and Francesco Morosini (P431) already in service, together with the Raimondo Montecuccoli (P 432) in the “Light Plus” (configuration) with air defence capabilities, currently involved in an operational deployment in the Indo-Pacific, participating to exercise RIMPAC 24 and later on PACIFIC DRAGON 24.
The Giovanni delle Bande Nere (P 434) is the first in the “Full” configuration with ASuW, AAW and ASW capabilities and although no date has been provided by OCCAR and NAVARM, is expected to be delivered after the summer time, in the September-October period.
The MCS Light Plus Marcantonio Colonna (P 433) and Ruggiero di Lauria (P 435), launched by Fincantieri respectively in November 2022 and October 2023 were to be delivered in December 2024 and August 2025, but based on the export success of Fincantieri group which signed a contract on March 2024 with Indonesian MoD and Navy, these are the ships which are planned to be delivered to the South-Asian customer.
In November 2023, during the technical launch of the fifth MSC, the Italian Navy Chief of Staff, Admiral Enrico Credendino unveiled the plans to upgrade the first two MSC Light to Full configuration. The Light Plus and Light platforms could be easily upgraded to the Full one as being ‘fitted for’ Level 1, having the space and installations, power, cooling and connecting cable for the combat system equipment of the more capable configuration.
With the plan to transfer the two MSC Light Plus to Indonesia, the Italian MoD and Navy will also have to replace and although no official statement has been released, they are already discussing with the industrial temporary consortium to build two additional ships, which are expected to be delivered, budget permitting, in a Full configuration. Depending on contract award timeline and potential developments, an overall procurement and shipbuilding process could led to the delivery of the first of the two ships by the end of the decade.
The Millelire MSC technical launch represents a key milestone in PPA Programme which initial contract was awarded in May 2015 by OCCAR on behalf of Italian MoD’s NAVARM, making the then new class of ships, the main development of the Fleet Renewal project under the “Naval Law” Italian Parliament funding plan. As last platform of the class, the Domenico Millelire is planned to be delivered according to plans and budget as originally scheduled since contract award.
The MSCs represent a quantum leap in platform and systems solutions compared to previous ship design, such as the already successful FREMM design. In addition to the platform design and propulsion offering a maximum speed of over 31 knots and proven sea-keeping performances, the combat system includes more than 20 newly developed and to-be-integrated apparatus, starting from the Leonardo SADOC Mk4 combat management system to the ELT Group EW, Leonardo ASW suite and MBDA Italia SAAM ESD PPA air defence missile system, passing through 76/62 single deck gun and Vulcano ammunition.
 the 7th PPA was celebrated on 13 July at Fincantieri’s Riva Trigoso shipyard.){kind=link}