Italy’s ITS Caio Duilio to Bolster Polish Air Defense
In late May the ITS Caio Duilio entered Poland’s northern port city of Gdynia. This marks the second visit of the Italian vessel to Poland and sees the vessel bolster Northern Poland’s air defenses and enhance NATO presence in the Baltic for the next half of a year.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Poland has become a central supply hub for aid to Ukraine. Bordering a nation at war has also seen several serious incidents, such as two incursions of foreign missiles into Polish territory resulting in the deaths of two civilians. Since the beginning of the war, various NATO states contributed to enhancing the protection of Poland by transferring its aerial assets, air defense components, or land forces. Polish officials are concerned with the safety of critical infrastructure and other assets in the country, as this became Russia’s tactic to destroy them in coordinated missile and drone strikes in Ukraine.
On 18 May, Italy’s Defense Minister Guido Crosetto told Italy’s Foreign and Defence Commissions that “the deployment in the Baltic Sea of a naval unit with air and missile defence capabilities is also planned, as a contribution to strengthening Polish air space and the Euro-Atlantic area.” On 22 May, the Caio Duilio hosted a visit from Jacek Siewiera, Poland’s Secretary of State with Italy’s ambassador to Poland, Luca Franchetti Pardo.
The Horizon Class destroyer is equipped with a PAAMS air-defense system capable of launching up to 48 Aster-family missiles, 8 Teseo mk2/A anti-ship missiles, 3 76mm OTO Melara automatic cannons, and other smaller caliber equipment. In addition to that ITS Caio Duilio can launch MU90 Impact torpedoes as part of its anti-submarine weaponry. Its detection system consists of Selex ES EMPAR Phased array G band multi-purpose radar, BAE/Thales Group S1850M long-range radar, Thales Group UMS 4110 CL sonar, surface search radar in E/F band Selex RAN 30X/I (RASS) and other systems.
Horizon family destroyers are intended as a fleet air protection vessels and are highly agile on open waters. The Caio Duilio’s deployment serves as a bridging solution until Poland procures more CAMM launchers under the Narew program and Patriot batteries under the Vistula program, making its air defense one of the strongest and most advanced in Europe.
Cover picture and other media provided by courtesy of ItalianLarry under CC BY-SA 3.0 License.