Why Does the US Navy Acquire Italian Designed Frigates?

The US Navy's acquisition of Italian-designed frigates, specifically the Fincantieri FREMM European Multipurpose Frigate. The FREMM platform offers versatility, with variants for anti-submarine warfare, air defense, and general-purpose missions.

[ParadoxlnABox]

They bought the design just to alter like 80%+ of it, thereby negating any time and cost savings. Now it’s behind schedule and over budget. That’s how you know it’s truly a US Navy project.

[Themanfromohio]

They actually bought it because it has Alcantara seats and designer curtains.

[GFCordoba]

Italians are and always were great engineers. Respect from Spain.

[tiziokcaiok]

The Constellation class is built by Marinette Marine in the USA, a company owned by the Italian Fincantieri

[johntheclyde]

Two reasons. They can get a bunch in the water fairly quickly…and this design generates much more electrical power than the competition. The navy is planning for a laser equipped future.

[brucecampbell]

USN started out with a winner in this Italian designed Frigate and did such a major redesign that they squandered about 6 years of development time savings. Constellation Class program is over-budget and way behind thanks to poor Naval command decisions.

[Gep]

I love Italian and Swedish military engineering. I feel they're so talented with their own innovative designs that they should have a greater role to play on the global military scene 🇮🇹🇸🇪

[Skaramine]

Constellation Class. A million Trek nerds perked up. If only it were a heavy cruiser.

[valefur]

They are built in the Fincantieri shipyards in the USA.

[h.k.]

USN: "We're in a hurry! Let's copy a European design, but... extensively redesign it, taking away most of its stealthy profile. Now, let's assign the contract to the same yard that built the defective Freedom Class. This is urgent - What? We have to wait three more years before beginning the project? That's fine."

[kuhniberti]

Because Italian car and boat design is the most beautiful in the world.

[richarddoig]

You didn’t answer your own question, just described the ship. Why. Cost saving? Time saving? All shipyards busy?

[remilannes.linguistique]

I am French but I have always been admiratve of the Italians

[genevieve.annabelle]

Sailed with the Italians quite abit. Their ships are pretty snazzy, I'm a big fan of the 2 76mm otos. Always fun to see them shoot both. Best one was the Romanians though. They had a ship with 2 dual 76s on the bow, they did a salvo with both. Pretty sick. I was driving the target the fleet was shooting at, had them on comms and knew when they were shooting so zigged and zagged abit when they started shooting 😅 wasn't really in the plan but I figured fuck it make it abit fun, plus I was on the other side of the bridge so had to stand up and peek around a corner to see them. Still a great memory though.

[packr]

Currently the Constellation will only share about 15% commonality with the FREM, it’s basically a brand new design.

[itsrogue]

After the LCS fiasco. Modifying a proven platform is probably a better idea lol

[drippyburgy]

Because allies exist for a reason. You help each other

[Xarco]

The only reason was the withdrawal of the Spanish frigate F104 from the USS Abraham Lincoln battle group in 2019. The Constellation class is similar, if not identical, to the Spanish F100 class, but this political move led to the loss of the contract to Navantia.

[CasioToCartier]

Whew that’s one of the best looking warships.

[gibster]

That's not the first time an Italian masterpiece has become part of the United States militaries DNA. Where are my Benelli M4 fans at?