Italian frigate Virginio Fasan (F 591)

Planning assumptions for the Italian Navy are ten FREMM-IT, four anti-submarine warfare (ASW) variants and six general purpose (GP) variants, at a cost of €5.9 billion. FREMM-IT will replace the Maestrale and Lupo-class frigates in service with the Italian Navy. In the 2013 Italian budget, the Italian government laid out the necessary financing for two more GP variants (FREMM-IT 7 & 8) and the contract was awarded in September 2013. On 15 April 2015, the Italian Parliament confirmed the deal between OCCAR and Orizzonte Sistemi Navali Spa (Fincantieri and Finmeccanica, since 2017 Leonardo) to begin building units 9 and 10, for 764 million Euros.

As of 16 April 2015, the Italian government approved funding for all ten FREMM-IT to be delivered to the Italian Navy.^[1]

FREMM-IT 9 & 10 have undisclosed enhanced capabilities. All ten Italian FREMM-ITs have extended anti-air warfare capabilities, with SAAM-ESD CMS, Aster 30 and Aster 15 missiles for extended area defence. SAAM-ESD CMS use Leonardo MFRA, a 3D active radar (AESA), an evolved version of the Leonardo EMPAR PESA radar (previously embarked on Horizon-class destroyers and the aircraft carrier Cavour). Since the seventh FREMM-IT, there ships have been updated, such as new conformal IFF antenna and much more stealth response. Since the ninth FREMM-IT, SCLAR-H replaced with Leonardo ODLS-20. In 2017 the Italian FREMM refit started with the installation on each of two SITEP MS-424 acoustic guns.

On 31 March 2012, the ship, named after Virginio Fasan, was launched. The frigate was commissioned into the Italian Navy on 19 December 2013 and is based at La Spezia as part of 2° Comando Gruppo Navale.^[2]

Virginio Fasan was deployed as part of EUNAVFOR's counter-piracy Operation Atalanta in 2017. On 18 November, the ship responded to a series of attacks on a container ship and a fishing vessel. The attacks on the container ship included the use of rocket-propelled grenades. Virginio Fasan located the assailants and a team of Italian marines were deployed via the frigate's helicopter to detain the pirates. A motor whaler and a skiff were captured and six people were detained by the marines.^[3]

On 29 April 2024, while deployed to the Red Sea as part of the European Union's Operation Aspides, Virginio Fasan shot down a Houthi unmanned aerial vehicle with its 3-inch gun.^[4]