ROME - An Italian Navy FREMM frigate will visit Australia in January and February and hold exercises with the Australian Navy in the wake of the type's short listing for acquisition by Australia.
The promotional tour, which is backed by Fincantieri, the ship's builder, will include stops in Fremantle, Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne, Italian Navy officials said on Dec. 16.
In April, Australia shortlisted proposals from BAE Systems, Fincantieri and Navantia for the country's program to build nine new frigates.
The BAE offering is based on the Type 26 frigate, while Navantia is proposing a redesigned version of its Álvaro de Bazán (F100) class vessel.
The FREMM frigate making the trip, the Carabiniere, is an anti-submarine warship FREMM and was delivered to the Italian Navy in April 2015, the fifth of ten to be commissioned. On the tour it will carry an NH90 helicopter and undertake ASW exercises with the Australians.
The promotional tour was announced at a press conference at the Italian Navy where Navy officials spoke alongside officials from firms including Leonardo-Finmeccanica, Elettronica and MBDA which have installed systems on the Carabiniere.
The vessel will carry mock-ups of MBDA's Aster 30, Marte ER and CAMM ER missiles.
Guido Crosetto, the head of Italian aerospace and defense industry group AIAD, said Fincantieri had the advantage over its competitors. "Of the rival vessels, one is still an idea the other is a project," he said. "The Australian Navy prefers the Italian offering," he added.
Crosetto said construction work would be offered to Australia, noting that Fincantieri opened an office in Canberra on Thursday.
The Carabiniere will stop in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and Colombo in Sri Lanka en route to Australia, and in Jakarta in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Karachi in Pakistan and Muscat in Oman on its return home.
Tom Kington is the Italy correspondent for Defense News.
