Italy Upgrades PPA Warships to Full Combat With Aster Missiles and Anti-Submarine Warfare Systems.

Italy is upgrading its Thaon di Revel-class ships into full-spectrum combatants, transforming them from patrol-focused vessels into frontline warships. This shift strengthens naval combat power by standardizing the fleet with higher-end capabilities across air, surface, and subsurface domains.

The upgrade equips the ships with a full combat system that expands air defense, anti-ship strike, and anti-submarine warfare performance. It enhances survivability and mission flexibility, aligning the fleet with modern naval warfare trends that prioritize multi-domain operations and high-intensity conflict readiness.

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Italy will upgrade its Thaon di Revel-class PPA multipurpose combat ships to the Full Combat System configuration, adding stronger air-defence, anti-ship, antisubmarine, cyber and underwater warfare capabilities to improve fleet readiness and operational flexibility (Picture source: OCCAR).

Signed in Bonn on 21 April 2026, the amendment is valued at about €392 million at 2014 economic conditions, while Fincantieri’s share is approximately €62 million. The package also adds cyber-defence enhancements and the acquisition of Remotely Operated Vehicle and Unmanned Underwater Vehicle systems, widening the ships’ role in contested littoral and seabed-security missions.

The work will affect vessels already delivered as well as units still under construction or outfitting, allowing the Italian Navy to reduce configuration gaps within the class. For a navy operating in the central Mediterranean, where air, missile, submarine, drone and grey-zone threats increasingly overlap, common combat capability matters as much as ship numbers.

The PPA design was conceived around a “fitted for” approach, allowing capabilities to be added over time rather than frozen at delivery. The Thaon di Revel-class is a 143-meter ship with a 16.5-meter beam, 32-knot maximum speed, 5,000-nautical-mile range, 30-day endurance, CODAG propulsion, a flight deck for SH90 or EH101 helicopters, and a hangar for two SH90s or one EH101.

The Full Combat System configuration brings the complete sensor, weapon, electronic warfare and underwater warfare architecture needed to move from maritime security and limited escort tasks to high-intensity fleet operations.

At the center of the upgrade is the Leonardo combat architecture, including the combat management system, integrated communications, navigation suite, IFF, infrared surveillance, fire-control equipment, electronic support measures and dual-band radar. The Full configuration also adds the SAAM-ESD surface-to-air missile system, Teseo anti-ship missile system, decoy launchers, torpedo detection, active towed-array sonar and torpedo-launching capability.

The radar improvement is central to the ship’s combat value. Leonardo’s Kronos Dual Band combines fixed-face C-band and X-band AESA radars, coordinated through a system manager to support surveillance, tracking, missile guidance, fire-control support and electronic attack functions across 360 degrees.

This gives the PPA Full configuration a much stronger role in area air defence than the Light versions. Against saturation raids involving aircraft, anti-ship missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles and ballistic trajectories, the value lies in early detection, target discrimination and rapid engagement sequencing, not simply in carrying more missiles.

For air defence, the Full configuration is associated with two eight-cell Sylver A50 vertical launch modules for Aster missiles. MBDA describes Aster as a vertically launched, highly manoeuvrable interceptor with active RF guidance, up to Mach 4.5 speed, 360-degree engagement coverage and the ability to counter aircraft, UAVs, helicopters, supersonic and subsonic missiles, and ballistic threats depending on variant.

The missile layer gives the PPA a credible escort function for carrier, amphibious and logistics groups. In NATO or EU maritime operations, a Full Combat System PPA can contribute to a defended naval formation rather than remaining mainly a constabulary or surveillance ship, a distinction that becomes decisive in the Red Sea, Eastern Mediterranean or Black Sea approaches.

The surface-strike element is built around the MBDA Teseo Mk2/E missile, a 700 kg weapon less than five meters long with a 350 mm diameter, designed for both anti-ship and land-attack missions. The missile combines RF and electro-optical terminal guidance, two-way data link, sea-skimming flight, overland capability, high-subsonic cruise speed, high-G terminal manoeuvrability and a range exceeding 350 km.

Teseo Mk2/E changes the ship’s reach. A PPA fitted with eight launchers can threaten surface combatants beyond the horizon, strike coastal command nodes, and complicate an adversary’s freedom of manoeuvre without relying exclusively on carrier aviation or submarines.

The gun armament also remains unusually important. The Leonardo 127/64 LW Vulcano system combines the gun mount, automated ammunition handling, fire-control support and Vulcano ammunition, with four drums carrying 14 ready rounds each and compatibility with standard 127 mm and extended-range guided ammunition reaching up to 100 km.

That gives the ship a precision naval gunfire-support option for amphibious operations, coastal interdiction and warning shots short of missile use. In constrained waters, where missile expenditure may be disproportionate and collateral damage is politically sensitive, guided 127 mm ammunition gives commanders a scalable effect.

The secondary gun is the Leonardo 76/62 Super Rapid in the Davide/Strales family, intended for air-defence, anti-surface and especially anti-missile roles. DART guided ammunition uses RF guidance, a programmable multifunction fuze, more than 8 km effective operating range, 1,100 m/s initial velocity and manoeuvrability up to 40 g, providing a fast inner layer against sea-skimming threats.

The antisubmarine package gives the PPA Full configuration a further step up from patrol duties. Active towed-array sonar, torpedo detection and torpedo launchers allow the ship to screen task groups, protect choke points and contribute to underwater surveillance, while embarked helicopters extend detection and engagement ranges beyond the ship’s own sensors.

The addition of ROVs and UUVs is particularly relevant in today’s maritime security environment. These systems can support mine countermeasure tasks, harbour approach inspection, seabed infrastructure monitoring and post-incident survey work, making the class useful not only in combat but also in protecting energy, data and port infrastructure.

The amendment therefore strengthens three layers at once: the ship’s own survivability, its contribution to fleet defence and its usefulness in hybrid maritime competition. For Italy, it also sustains the Fincantieri-Leonardo naval industrial chain and preserves a modular growth path that can keep the PPA class relevant as missile, drone and underwater threats evolve.

By standardizing the class around the Full Combat System configuration, the Italian Navy is buying operational coherence. The result is a force of multipurpose combat ships able to patrol, escort, strike, defend against air threats, hunt submarines and support seabed-security missions with a common combat baseline, improving readiness and interoperability across national and allied operations.

Written by Evan Lerouvillois, Defense Analyst.

Evan studied International Relations, and quickly specialized in defense and security. He is particularly interested in the influence of the defense sector on global geopolitics, and analyzes how technological innovations in defense, arms export contracts, and military strategies influence the international geopolitical scene.