The shipyards of Riva Trigoso have put the tenth example of the FREMM (European Multi-Mission Frigates) class into the sea, dedicated to the Gold Medal for Military Valor Emilio Bianchi, raider of the Xott MAS Flotilla and protagonist of the company of Alexandria in Egypt in 1941.
With the launch ofEmilio Bianchi the Italian-French program ends, delivery to the Navy is scheduled for 2021.
The frigates of the FREMM class have been designed to perform a wide range of missions, from the anti-aircraft / anti-ballistic defense (with the next installation on board the ASTER 30 Block1NT surface-to-air missiles), to the antisom and anti-ship missile, that is, to constitute the support tools of the Maritime Power of Italy.
However in recent years, the units that entered service, rather than used to be used for the aforementioned purpose have been destined for the recovery of immigrants released into the sea by smugglers.
Indeed, the occasions when FREMM-Class units could have shown their capabilities are certainly not lacking. One out of all the episode of two years ago which involved the ship ENI Saipem 12000, removed from the Cypriot territorial waters by Turkish military units (v.articolo). In that case the Navy would have had to return the Saipem escorted by a couple of FREMMs (together with a U-212A submarine).
Obviously this would have been possible with at least a decent political leadership, which does not exchange sophisticated combat units for ferries carrying illegal immigrants.
