The Italian Navy launched the amphibious assault ship Trieste at a shipyard in Castellammare di Stabia on 25 May. Its largest warship since World War II, the 33,000-ton Trieste is 804 feet long with a 118-foot beam and a 24-foot draft and incorporates a 164-foot by 49-foot well deck for landing craft and a 755-foot flight deck for both helicopter and fixed-wing F-35B Lightning II STOVL operations. The ship will be able to accommodate more than 1,000 personnel, including a crew complement of more than 400 and an embarked 600-troop battalion with its associated equipment. A combined diesel-electric and gas propulsion system will provide a 25-knot top speed with a 7,000-nautical mile range while cruising at 16 knots. The warship will be able to execute a wide variety of missions, including amphibious assault, power projection, transport, disaster relief, and humanitarian assistance. The Trieste is expected to join the fleet by 2023, replacing the aircraft carrier Giuseppe Garibaldi, commissioned in 1985.
Advanced construction of the nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarine Columbia (SSBN-826) began with a historic steel-cutting ceremony at Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia on 23 May. The Columbia is the first boat of an eponymous class of U.S. Navy submarines that will be the first to be built using fully digital blueprints, symbolized by the plasma-burning machine’s first cut of a steel plate, shown here. Columbia-class boats are expected to displace 20,815 tons submerged, with a 560-foot length and a 43-foot beam, and will be fitted with 16 submarine-launched ballistic-missile tubes to accommodate UGM-133A Trident II D5 missiles along with torpedo tubes for self-defense. The submarines will feature an electric drive propulsion system and a life-of-the-boat nuclear reactor that will not require mid-life refueling. Current plans are for 12 Columbia-class boats to form the nation’s future undersea nuclear deterrent force, beginning to replace the current generation of 14 Ohio-class “boomers” in the early 2030s.
The first of two Philippine Jose Rizal–class multipurpose frigates was launched at Ulsan, South Korea in May. Expected to be delivered by late 2020, the Jose Rizal will be the first-ever missile-armed warship to enter the Philippine Navy. Also in May, steel was cut for the future Antonio Luna, the second ship of the class, which is expected to join the fleet in 2021. Ordered under a 2016 contract, the warships are named in honor of two late-19th-century Philippine national heroes. Each ship will have a 2,600-ton displacement, a 351-foot length, and a 45-foot beam and will feature a landing deck and hangar for a single AgustaWestland AW159 Wildcat helicopter. Four diesel engines will give the frigates a 25-knot top speed and a 4,500-nautical mile endurance. The warships will be fitted with a 76-mm/62-caliber gun and likely will be armed with Mistral short-range surface-to-air missiles, SSM-700K Hae Seong antiship missiles, and torpedo tubes.