Two more advanced stealth missile frigates of the Italian Navy have entered the Black Sea to join forces with other NATO countries amid growing tensions between Russia and NATO.
Two stealthy missile ships of the Italian Navy have entered the Black Sea, ready to participate in the Sea Breeze 21 exercise with NATO.
Currently, it is known that Russia has sent patrol boats to escort the fleet of NATO warships, Moscow state that it is open to the possibility of a clash with ships of the Italian Navy like the incident that happened before with the British Navy ship.
Previously, the British stealth destroyer HMS Defender approached the Crimea peninsula, then the Dutch stealth frigate Evertsen and the US missile destroyer USS Ross also repeated the same action despite the objections of Russia.
The US and NATO do not recognize sovereignty over Crimea, which was recovered by Russia despite objections from Ukraine in 2014. So the bloc explains the actions of their warships entering territorial waters at Ukraine’s invitation.
Russian President Putin said that they are ready to sink the British warship without fear of a response from NATO, if there are continued actions that Moscow considers a violation of sovereignty.
On the counter the NATO side is also ready to respond once it is attacked by Russia, the warships present in the Sea Breeze 21 exercise are all the ships with the leading power of this military bloc.
It is known that the two Italian warships belong to the Carlo Bergamini-class stealth frigate, this class of ships has an unusually high mast design to accommodate radar with a reconnaissance range of up to 400 km for air defense missions.
The Italian Navy’s Carlo Bergamini-class stealth frigate is part of the FREMM multi-role destroyer program in cooperation with France. In particular, the Aquitaine class was built for the French Navy and Carlo Bergamini for the Italian Navy.
The Carlo Bergamini class frigate shares many subsystems with the French Aquitaine class frigate. The hull has a hydrodynamic design quite similar to the French battleship.
The biggest difference between the two classes of battleships lies in the mainmast. The Italian version of the FREMM has a very tall mast. The top of the mast is fitted with a Selex MFRA active electronically scanned array radar (AESA) with a reconnaissance range of up to 400 km.
The radar’s processor is optimized for air defense and remote detection of hypersonic anti-ship missiles. Weapons on board include 16 SYLVER A50 VLS vertical launch tubes using Aster-15 sea-to-air missiles with a range of 30 km or Aster-30 with a range of 120 km.
The ship is armed with a 127 mm Otobreda main gun. The cannon can fire Vulcano guided artillery shells with a range of more than 100 km, a rate of fire of 35 rounds per minute. In addition, the ship is also equipped with 4 Otomat anti-ship missiles, with a range of 200 km. Two remote-controlled 25mm cannons, two MU90 light torpedo launchers. The stern has a flight deck that can deploy two very modern NH-90 multi-role helicopters at the same time.
The Carlo Bergamini-class frigate has a length of 144.6 m, a width of 19.7 m, a displacement of 6,900 tons. The crew has 199 people. The ship uses the CODLAG hybrid propulsion system to help the ship reach a maximum speed of about 29 knots, with a cruise reserve of 6,700 nautical miles.
Analysts say that Italy’s Carlo Bergamini-class frigate is one of the most powerful battleships with comprehensive defensive power, which can completely create a surprise attack for the opponent.