GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
Since the early 60's, the Coast Guard did not have available neither offshore patrol vessels nor sighting or telecommunications networks dedicated to search and rescue at sea. It was operating using the radiotelegraph and radiotelephone network owned by the Postal Authority; moreover, for activities on sea and - according to circumstances - it availed itself of specifically requisitioned merchant ships, harbour tugs or fishing/leisure ships, with an officer or petty officer on board as Director of operations. It could also use naval units assigned to the Navy's Departments or units assigned to the Financial Police.
In the year 1962 Italy ratified the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea SOLAS 60: it committed contracting countries to deliver search and rescue service on sea through a dedicated organization. This delicate task was assigned to the Coast Guard, that began to procure the assets needed for this purpose.
The Port Pilots category (open also to conscript personnel) was established in place of Port Services. Lieutenant General Michele Carnino, Harbour Masters' Corps' General Inspector from 1961 to 1965, added to the flotilla of "Caterina" (CP 202-225, the real backbone of naval units until the early 60s) single-engine patrol boats used for police duties and supervision of fishing on outer and coastal navigation, and CP 201 (former British torpedo recovery, acquired in the 50s). Very soon, fast patrol boats "Super Speranza" were also added, with good seaworthiness and later replicated in about 30 examples, along with 4 "Barnett" units purchased in England, 2 "Guardia Costiera" 44 feet coming from the United States, the prestigious all-weather units "Michele Fiorillo" (1967) and "Bruno Gregoretti" (1972) and dozens of first generation inflatable boats "Zodiac".
DEVELOPMENT OF THE CORPS
With "Super-Speranza", "Caterina" and "Barnett" patrol boats the operative component of the Corps began to develop and, a quarter of a century later, was incorporated in the Coast Guard.
The high spirit of crews and the undoubted skills of captains made these ships perform real miracles, although less efficient than those coming later: on 9th April 1970, for example, patrol boat CP 233, commanded by Port Captain Giuseppe Telmon (Gold Medal for Military Valour), rescued the crew of the British ship "London Valour", slammed on the rocks by a devastating storm.
In the year 1970 the Coast Guard had to take into consideration the units called "coastal patrol boats", since they had become numerically insufficient to cover the needs of continuously increasing services; moreover, it had to be also consider the inevitable signs of age that the technically outdated "Caterine" began to show. Furthermore, it urged to provide almost all the commands with new "coastal" units with specific nautical features, such as seakeeping, good speed and robustness.
The decision, determined also by cost/benefit parameters, was for the ship "Keith Nelson" of the type "Launch Nelson", 40-ft. and manufactured in the UK by the company Vosper Thornicroft Group Ltd. of Portsmouth. At the end of 1969 (3rd September 1969), this company had acquired the Keith Nelson and Co. Ltd. of Bembridge, that manufactured the "Keith Nelson" vessels based on the designs of the subsidiary TT Boat Designers Ltd., owner of the projects. "Classe 2000" was the distinguishing mark assigned to the new unit.
THE COAST GUARD
The turning point came with Law n. 979 dated 31st December 1982 ("Provisions for the protection of the sea"), which provides for a large acquisition of assets for surveillance and rescue on sea, including aircrafts and helicopters; moreover, recognizing the inadequate number of personnel, granted a first urgent increase (102 officers and 236 petty officers), in anticipation of an enlargement of the global workforce. The law provided also for the establishment of:
protection service or the marine and coastal environment, as well as surveillance and intervention to prevent and control pollution of the sea;
safety service on maritime and economic activities in the areas of national jurisdiction;
strengthening of the safety and rescue service through the acquisition of aircrafts.
Years of intense and fruitful work followed, leading to the establishing of the Coast Guard (Joint Ministerial Decree dated 8th June 1989), to the long-awaited restatement of the workforce (Laws n. 23 dated 13th February 1990 and n. 255 dated 6th August 1991), as well as to the creation of the Coast Guard Headquarters (art. 3, Law n. 84 dated 28th January 1994), with the recognition of the achieved organizational and financial independence.
The assets of the Coast Guard, entirely dedicated to the institutional tasks of the Corps, operate in three specific areas:
For the "sea rescue" service, the naval component operates "inshore activities" within 40 miles from the coast and "offshore activities" over that limit. With no less priority there is also the functional relationships with many Ministries for the exercise and control over marine fisheries or the protection of marine environment.
THE FLEET TODAY
The Coast Guard has currently nearly 600 vessels (including naval units and minor assets) located in 113 ports in the peninsula and in the islands.
Law n. 413 dated 30th November 1998 allowed the acquisition of a homogeneous class of 6 (over 50 meters length) patrol vessels, former "Classe Diciotti", that today - following the sale of ship DICIOTTI (CP 902) and ship DATTILO (CP 903) to the Republic of Panama - has become "Classe Fiorillo" (CP 904); plus 28 offshore vessels with large autonomy (AGA) Class 200/S produced by Rodriguez Shipyard in Messina, which for years have been representing segments of the fleet involved in deep-sea activities. Law 413/1998, in short, enabled the renewal of the marine transport line, focusing for the first time on the reproduction in large scale of the best types of units built in the previous years and then on vessels' standardization.
In February 2008 the program "Classe 300 - Ammiraglio Francese" was launched: 20 meters length units representing the evolution of the proven "Classe 800", to be used in offshore SAR (Search & Rescue) activities. Nowadays, the Coast Guard has 21 Classe 300 units.
The "medium" fleet segment is equipped with "Classe 800 SAR" units (for a total of 94 units), plus 12 patrol boats "Classe 600" specifically designed for assistance to aircrafts involved in accidents at sea, and "Classi 2000, 500 and 700", respectively in number of 50, 72 and 35 units, mainly involved in institutional services. There are also 3 "Class 450" units exclusively dedicated to the "sea ambulance service" to the smaller islands.
The fleet's "minor assets" are also evolving, being very sensitive to technological innovations related to hulls and engines: it has now reached a total of over 260 units of various types currently identified with alphanumeric badges: GC, A, B, and L. In the "segment A" there are 36 series "Hurricane" boats (Zodiac company) with innovative features and performances, with hulls of about 10 meters, sterndrive engines and radar/ tics equipments: these features permit their involvement in different operating situations.
Recently, additional responsibilities have invested the Coast Guard, such as the Vessel Traffic Service (Legislative Decree n. 196 dated 19th August 2005) as well as the security management of terrorism acts against ships and ports (Ministerial Decree dated 18th April 2004).
The fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) disclosed an era of potential, unlimited growth for a humanity free from the threat of nuclear holocaust and yet characterized by frequent local conflicts, terrorism and mass migration - causing the exodus of crowds of desperate people in search of a better life – as well as the phenomenon of illegal migration by sea, worsened by the Arab Spring, initially from Albania and Kosovo, then from North Africa. Meanwhile, globalization, decentralising industrial productions, has increased even more maritime traffic as well as the type and tonnage of vessels; this now requires new and more adequate port infrastructures introducing new challenges for security.
The "epochal" turning point of the Coast Guard naval assets is recent history.
Ship DATTILO (CP 940) came into service in September 2013, followed (April 2014) by her twin ship DICIOTTI (CP 941). With these units the Coast Guard did the expected quality leap with the instrumental adaptation of the fleet to wider, more delicate and continuously increasing institutional responsibilities: with their large size dimensions (94 m), full load displacement of about 3.600 tons. (equal to a large Corvette or a light Frigate), the units of the Classe DATTILO a re able to carry out their missions - in an "extended" operative field - of:
command and control in complex scenarios;
search and rescue with coordination of vessels and aircrafts;
operations of civil protection through rolling stock transports, containers and other materials as well as assistance/evacuation of populations in need;
control and management of migration flows with castaways boarding capacity in emergency of more than 600 units;
ability of deck landing and refuelling for helicopters AB 412 / AW 139;
activities of boarding team to control fishing vessels and merchant ships with the use of 4 fast ship supplied with the vessel;
anti-pollution capacity of polluting oil recovery (500 m3), supplied with 250 m of high seas floating barriers;
fishing surveillance activity and recovery of illegal nets;
maritime police activities with low speed patrol (by electric propulsion);
fire service for vessels in danger;
trailer of units> 5000 tonnes of displacement;
meeting room for crisis units (capacity 18 people);
abilities to use diving squads.
The real strength of these ships is the innovation of their hybrid propulsion system, which provides an auxiliary diesel-electric engine to be used for the low and very low speeds needed while performing supervision and control tasks for a long time: in these case, it would be counterproductive to use conventional propulsion. In this configuration, the ship has an autonomy of about 6.500 miles.
The new Supply Vessel "Bruno GREGORETTI" (CP 920) is smaller (62.5 m.), but it is also equipped with a "green heart" (the hybrid propulsion system). Designed to control activities on marine fisheries and nets recovery as primary task, it can also deliver the following missions:
platform for command and control;
search and rescue (S.A.R);
antipollution activities and protection of the marine environment;
maritime police;
control of migration flows;
civil Protection operations;
trailer;
training.
With the upgrade of the fleet due to new acquisitions and planned expulsions, the naval component of the Coast Guard is currently a modern and sophisticated operational resource. Applying current trends in the manufacturing of hulls with the use of materials like steel, aluminium alloys and fibreglass, combined with reliable engines and advanced discovery systems/TLC, allowed the construction of more adequate naval platforms to ensure a suitable technical and operational coverage of the whole maritime jurisdiction area and beyond. In these contexts, sometimes dramatic, sometimes exciting but always new and challenging, the Coast Guard is present and proactive with the force of its great tradition of service and sacrifice which has accompanied the history of the country in these 150 years.
ncy of more than 600 units.
Ability of deck landing and refuelling for helicopters AB 412 / AW 139.
Activities of boarding team to control fishing vessels and merchant ships with the use of 4 fast ship supplied with the vessel.
Anti-pollution capacity of polluting oil recovery (500 m3), supplied with 250 m of high seas floating barriers.
Fishing surveillance activity and recovery of illegal nets
Maritime police activities with low speed patrol (by electric propulsion).
Fire service for vessels in danger.
Trailer of units> 5000 tonnes of displacement.
Meeting room for crisis units (capacity 18 people).
Abilities to use diving squads.
The real strength of these ships is the innovation of their hybrid propulsion system, which provides an auxiliary diesel-electric engine to be used for the low and very low speeds needed while performing supervision and control tasks for a long time: in these case, it would be counterproductive to use conventional propulsion. In this configuration, the ship has an autonomy of about 6500 miles.
The new Supply Vessel Bruno GREGORETTI CP 920 is smaller (62.5 m.), but it is also equipped with a "green heart" (the hybrid propulsion system).
Designed to control activities on marine fisheries and nets recovery as primary task, it can also deliver the following missions:
Platform for command and control;
Search and rescue (S.A.R);
Antipollution activities and protection of the marine environment;
Maritime Police;
Control of migration flows;
Civil Protection operations;
Trailer;
Training.
With the upgrade of the fleet due to new acquisitions and planned expulsions, the naval component of the Coast Guard is currently a modern and sophisticated operational resource. Applying current trends in the manufacturing of hulls with the use of materials like steel, aluminium alloys and fibreglass, combined with reliable engines and advanced discovery systems/TLC, allowed the construction of more adequate naval platforms to ensure a suitable technical and operational coverage of the whole maritime jurisdiction area and beyond. In these contexts, sometimes dramatic, sometimes exciting but always new and challenging, the Coast Guard is present and proactive with the force of its great tradition of service and sacrifice which has accompanied the history of the country in these 150 years.
