The Giuseppe Garibaldi is a conventionally-powered aircraft carrier in active service with the Italian Navy. She is designed to field the Harrier II series of VTOL aircraft and serves as the flagship of the Italian naval branch of service. The vessel is named after General Giuseppe Garibaldi, a soldier serving through the 1800's in conflicts ranging from Europe to South America.
Design-wise, the Giuseppe Garibaldi maintains many common features with traditional carriers. Her elongated island superstructure takes up a good portion of her starboard side while the straight flight deck dominates the stern to bow and across port. The flight deck has a slightly noticeable elevated end for improved short-take offs of her Harrier jets. Her superstructure features two distinct masts. Being a conventionally-powered system, the Garibaldi derives hers from quadruple General Electric/Avio LM2500 gas turbine engines producing 82,000 horsepower. This is supplemented by no fewer than 6 diesel-powered generators. Top optimal speed is 30 knots with a range of over 8,000 miles. Her crew consists of 630 sailors, 100 staff and 100 members comprising her air group.
The offensive punch of the Garibaldi comes from her modest collection of the aforementioned AV-8B Harrier II series of aircraft, capable of vertical and horizontal flight. Classified as fighter-bombers, the Harrier II series is a capable performer featuring a variety of hardpoints to field a plethora of munition types. Additionally, support roles such as anti-ship, anti-submarine and airborne early warning (AEW) are handled by helicopter models under the European Agusta brand. Self-defense comes from her 2 x quadruple surface-to-air missile launchers, 3 x 40mm cannons and 2 x 324mm torpedo tubes.
As with any carrier worth her weight on the seas, the Garibaldi is made potent not just by the size of her air arm but also by the sensors and systems that help her air arm function optimally. These processing systems include early warning radars, surface search radars, navigation and approach radars fire control systems and hull-mounted sonar. Her electronic countermeasures suite revolves around the SLQ-732 jamming system and this is further augmented by her SCLAR decoy launcher, SLAT anti-torpedo system and SLQ-25 "Nixie" tow torpedo decoy.
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(OPERATORS list includes past, present, and future operators when applicable)
✓Flag Ship / Capital Ship
Serving in the fleet Flag Ship role or Capital Ship in older warship designs / terminology.
Length
591.2 ft 180.20 m
Beam
109.6 ft 33.40 m
Draught
24.6 ft 7.50 m
Displacement
13,850 tons
Installed Power:
4 x General Electric/Avio LM2500 gas turbine engines developing 82,000hp along with 6 x diesel generators.
Surface Speed
30.0 kts (34.5 mph)
Range
7,000 nm (8,055 mi | 12,963 km)
kts = knots | mph = miles-per-hour | nm = nautical miles | mi = miles | km = kilometers
1 kts = 1.15 mph | 1 nm = 1.15 mi | 1 nm = 1.85 km
2 x Mk 29 Sea Sparrow / Selenia octuple surface-to-air missile launchers.
3 x 40mm Oto Melara Twin 40L70 DARDO cannons
2 x 324mm torpedo tubes (triple mounts)
Also Part of Original Armament Configuration:
4 x Otomat/Teseo Mk 2 SSM surface-to-surface anti-ship missile launchers
Supported Types
(Not all weapon types may be represented in the showcase above)
Aircraft of various types including the AV-8B Harrier II fighter-bombers and Agusta SH-3D / Agusta-Westland EH101 helicopters in a variety of specialty roles (anti-ship, anti-submarine, airborne early warning).
Ribbon graphics not necessarily indicative of actual historical campaign ribbons. Ribbons are clickable to their respective naval campaigns / operations / periods.
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Image from the United States Department of Defense imagery database.
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