With emotion and melancholy, this morning, the Navy, the Arsenal and the city of La Spezia witnessed the last flagging of two units of the naval team, the minesweepers Lerici and Sapri.
A solemn ceremony that sanctioned the cancellation of the two ships from the military shipping. "Lerici and Sapri - underlined the chief of staff of the Navy, Admiral Giuseppe De Giorgi - are part of our modern history, two authentic jewels that allow us to recall the naval law of 1975, which saved the Navy from extinction, relaunching the minesweeper class ".
The two ships, belonging to the Lerici I ^ series class, were set up around the 80s and delivered to the Navy in 1985. During their operational life they took part in countless missions, such as the one in the Persian Gulf (Persian Gulf One) but also to naval campaigns and exercises of national mine countermeasures and with NATO, together with the competition operations for the protection of underwater archaeological sites.
With the cancellation from the roles of the Lerici and Sapri ships, due to aging and with a view to the reorganization of the maritime instrument, the in-line minesweepers went from 12 to 10. As in 1975, however, with the passage from the old minesweepers to the most modern minesweepers, with the new investment of 5,4 billion euros from the government, a new epochal leap is being made with the new offshore patrol boats in design, ships with strong dual capabilities, which can also be used for non-military tasks. “The Navy is in desperate need of it - said Admiral De Giorgi - especially in this delicate moment that we are living in the waters near us and beyond. The government investment serves above all to relaunch our sector ”.
The last flag drop of Lerici and Sapri follows that of the corvettes Minerva and Sibilla this year and anticipates by a week the salute to the Granatiere team patrol boat, next 30 September, in Taranto.
