The ''Impavido'' class were the second group of

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...

s built for the

Italian Navy "Fatherland and Honour" , patron = , colors = , colors_label = , march = ( is the return of soldiers to their barrack, or sailors to their ship after a ...

after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and the first Italian

guided missile destroyer A guided-missile destroyer (DDG) is a destroyer whose primary armament is guided missiles so they can provide anti-aircraft warfare screening for the fleet. The NATO standard designation for these vessels is DDG, while destroyers who have a prim ...

s. Similar in performance to the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

's , these ships were essentially improved vessels, with the after gun-turret being replaced by a

Tartar Tartar may refer to: Places * Tartar (river), a river in Azerbaijan * Tartar, Switzerland, a village in the Grisons * Tərtər, capital of Tartar District, Azerbaijan * Tartar District, Azerbaijan * Tartar Island, South Shetland Islands, Ant ...

surface-to-air-missile launcher and associated radar. Two ships were constructed in the 1960s in Italy, ''Impavido'' and ''Intrepido''. They were in active service until the ships were retired in 1991 and 1992 respectively.

Design

The ''Impavido '' class were the first guided missile destroyers of the Italian Navy. The vessels were commissioned in the early 1960s and were roughly equal to the American ''Charles F. Adams''-class destroyer. Both classes shared the Tartar missile system, with a Mk 13 launcher, and carried around 40 missiles. They had two fire control radars to guide their weaponry and all this was fitted in the aft of the ship. Both classes also had two single guns, but the American ships had these in single mountings and in a new model, the Mk 42, one fore and the other aft, while the ''Impavido''s made use of an older Mk 38 dual turret. One difference between the classes was the secondary weaponry. While both had lightweight torpedo launchers, the rest was different. The ''Charles F. Adams'' class had an

ASROC The RUR-5 ASROC (for "Anti-Submarine Rocket") is an all-weather, all sea-conditions anti-submarine missile system. Developed by the United States Navy in the 1950s, it was deployed in the 1960s, updated in the 1990s, and eventually installed ...

launcher, dedicated to

anti-submarine warfare Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations are t ...

tasks, to help counter the growing number of Soviet submarines. The ''Impavido''s did not have such systems, but instead had four model MM (Marina Militare) guns. In the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

, where the ships were intended to operate, there was always the danger of air attacks as the main threat to ships. This usually led to the construction of many Italian warships with a heavier short-range air defence armament than normal. In service the MM guns were not considered satisfactory, despite having decisive improvements over the older American 76 mm guns. Reliability left a lot to be desired, while the lack of a totally automatic mode of fire proved a disadvantage. A characteristic of these ships were the superstructures, having a much less clean layout than other classes. They had a double line of windows in the main turrion, similar to the s. They became progressively obsolescent, not receiving any important updates in their service lives.

Ships

Notes

Sources

* Blackman, Raymond V.B. ''Jane's Fighting Ships 1971–72''. London: Sampson Low Marston & Co, 1971. . * Gardiner, Robert and Stephen Chumbley (editors). ''Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1947–1995''. Annapolis, Maryland, USA: Naval Institute Press, 1995. .

External links

Destroyer Impavido
Marina Militare website {{Italian destroyers, frigates and corvettes post-1945, state=collapsed, noshipclass=yes Destroyers of the Italian Navy Destroyer classes Cold War naval ships of Italy 1962 ships