Italian frigate Alpino (F 580)

Alpino was a frigate operated by the Italian Navy during the Cold War.

Design
The was designed by CNR in Riva Trigoso and named after types of soldiers and specifically after two World War II s.  The design was authorised in the 1959/1960 Italian naval programme but was radically redesigned in 1962. Circe was laid down as the lead ship in 1963 but was renamed Alpino in June 1965 prior to being launched in 1967.

As originally designed, Alpino was to have armament based on the preceding. Optimised for anti-submarine warfare, the vessels were designed around a hanger for an Agusta-Bell AB.204 helicopter, complemented by a single-barrel 305 mm Menon mortar mounted forward. An early drawing shows the hanger straddled by a pair of 40 mm guns with a single 76 mm gun mounted fore and aft to provide anti-aircraft defence. By 1962, the efficacy of the 40 mm was in doubt and the design was redrawn with three 76 mm guns, but this was deemed insufficient. At launch, the vessel had no less than six single mounts.

The propulsion system uses a combined diesel and gas (CODAG) system first trialled on the destroyer San Giorgio. The system allied two diesels and one gas turbine per shaft with a hydraulic coupling to enable the vessel to either run on diesel power alone, at low speed, or diesels, at high speed, and gas turbines simultaneously. Two 4200 shp Tosi OTV-320 diesels were paired with each 7500 shp Tosi-Metrovick G.6 gas turbine to provide a maximum speed of 20 kn on diesels alone and 28 kn with all engines running.

Service
Commissioned on 14 January 1968, Alpino quickly made a mark as a pioneer of sharply raked bows, the first frigates so equipped in Italian Navy service, as well as gas turbines and variable depth sonar. Between 14 January and 6 June 1973, the ship undertook the longest continuous voyage in the Italian Navy, covering 7315 nmi and travelling as far as the Labrador Sea, for which it was awarded a symbolic Blue Nose.

Alpino acted as the trial ship for the experimental SPQ-5A Sarchiapone radar between 1973 and 1987. It was reportedly able to locate aircraft during their take-off from the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) at a distance of 350 nmi.

A SLQ-A ECM system was also added during the 1970s. This was subsequently upgraded to SLQ-D. Consideration was also given to installing the Sea Wolf surface-to-air missile system to improve anti-aircraft capability.

The ship was further upgraded during a refit that ended in June 1985. Hull-mounted sonar was fitted and the variable depth sonar rendered inoperable.

Mine warfare flagship
Thirty-eight years after being originally commissioned, the ship was decommissioned on 31 March 2006.