cvh550portaereicavour

CVH550PORTAEREICAVOUR
CAVOUR
OVERVIEW
The aircraft carrier Cavour, the largest and
most complex ship ever built by the Italian
Navy, is the final output of a fully national
Italian project.
After keel laying in 2001, she was launched
in 2004 and commissioned in 2008; Cavour is a true and fine example of Italian
technology and of our nation’s industrial
capabilities.
As flagship of the Italian Navy, her Combat Ensign was handed over on June 10th
2009, during Navy Day’s ceremonies, attending the President of the Republic and
top-brass military authorities, and thus
marking the event of the ship’s final delivery to Italy’s “Marina Militare”.
Aircraft carrier Cavour fulfills the Navy’s
need for a dual-use major warship, with
“projection power” capabilities in classic military operations, being also able to
operate as an advanced sea-based Command and Control platform for widespread operations. Inasmuch, Cavour may provide advanced support for various civilian
needs and emergencies, as environmental
disasters and humanitarian relief operations either in national and international
scenarios.
CVH550PORTAEREICAVOUR
HISTORY
Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour (1810 –
1861), was a statesman and one of the
most important characters of the Italian
“Risorgimento”, the struggle for national
unity in the XIX century. With a great strategic overview, he deeply contributed to
Italy’s unification. As Prime Minister of the
Sardinia Kingdom (a post he held for several years in the 1850s), in 1861 he became the first Prime Minister of the newborn
unified Kingdom of Italy, being appointed
Foreign Affairs Minister and Navy Minister
at the same time as well. Thus, he is widely known as the founder of the Italian
Navy, as he vastly contributed to the uni-
fication of the pre-existents Bourbon and
Sardinian Navies, taking the lead for the
creation of an efficient and modern Italian
sea-service.
The first Italian Navy’s ship named after
Cavour was a sail transport, briefly serving
for a few years after Italian unification.
The second Cavour (more precisely Conte
di Cavour) was a “dreadnought” type battleship launched in 1911 and commissioned in 1915 (whose motto was “A nessuno
secondo”, i.e.: “Second to none”), that served since the Great War until 1931, when
she was placed in reserve for reconstruction. Conte di Cavour was completely rebuilt in the mid-1930s, being recommissioned in 1937 with her new motto: “Molti
nemici, molto onore” (“Many enemies,
great honour”). Along with sistership Giulio Cesare, she fought in the early months
of WW II, until being heavily damaged by
an enemy torpedo. Upon refloating, she
shifted her homeport to Trieste where a
complete reconstruction was undertaken:
on 8th September 1943 this was far from
complete, and Cavour’s hulk was scrapped
soon after war’s end.
The Italian Navy was among the first naval
powers to appreciate the importance of
aircraft from and over the sea. The first Italian flight license was released to Lt. Mario
Calderara in 1913, when the Navy was testing and developing her first seaplanes in
Venice already. Soon after, seaplanes began to be used aboard warships for scou-
ting and reconnaissance. Unluckily, between 1930 and 1940, when the Italian Navy
undertook important naval construction
programs, very few admirals understood
the need for aircraft carriers: as a matter
of fact, the game was won by “old-school”
admirals, who strove for – and obtained –
new battleship instead of carriers for the
‘Regia Marina’.
Only in wartime it was understood that
this had been a great mistake, but by now
it was too late and Italy’s only WW II aircraft
carrier - named Aquila and obtained from
the hull of the former liner Roma – albeit
almost complete at the time of the Italian
armistice, was never commissioned.
After World War II, the Italian Navy was the
first in Europe to believe in the yet untested potential of helicopters, particularly
in the anti-submarine role, and in the late
1950s and early 1960 helicopters began to
be embarked aboard frigates and cruisers.
In more recent years, the evolution of these technical and operational concepts
brought to a better understanding of the
importance of an efficient and capable
naval aviation and to the launching (in
1983) of Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italy’s first aircraft carrier.
Garibaldi soon became the Italian Navy’s
fundamental ship, and her AV-8B+ aircraft
began to be appreciated as Italy’s most
important assets in many sea based operations and missions in the Mediterranean
and in more distant areas.
CVH550PORTAEREICAVOUR
AIRCRAFT CARRIER CAVOUR
The flight deck, 234 meters long, has six
takeoff and landing spots for both aircraft
and helicopters; along with two parking
areas, one more spot is used by a search
and rescue (SAR) and plane-guard helicopter.
The ship has two elevators able to lift up
to 30 tons loads. They connect the flight
deck with the hangar deck, and are used
for aircraft movements and their maintenance needs.
The aircraft currently embarked on Cavour
is the AV-8B+, a highly performing STOVL
(Short Take-off and Vertical Landing)
fighter used for fleet protection, combat
air patrol (CAP), attack of both naval and
land-based targets and close air support
during amphibious and land operations.
In the next future, the AV-8B+ will be replaced by the new F-35B JSF (Joint Strike
Fighter).
Nowadays, all the helicopters in Italian naval service may operate from Cavour and
– particularly – the new Agusta-Westland
EH-101 and SH-90.
Technical data:
Overall Length: 244 m.
Height: 55 meters (14 decks)
Range: 7.000 Nautical Miles (at 16 knots)
Speed: 32 knots (max.), 28 kts (sustained)
Machinery: Four Gas Turbines (30.000 hp
each), two shafts with variable pitch propellers, among the biggest in the world
Electrical plant: six diesel-generators and
two shaft-driven axial generators (17,6 MW)
Armament: Surface-to-Air SAAM-IT missile
system and 76mm guns.
Crew: 545 (increased up to 1.200 according
to assigned missions, with Air Group personnel, Flag and Staff personnel, medical,
special forces and amphibious marine brigade personnel.
CVH550PORTAEREICAVOUR
CVH550PORTAEREICAVOUR
FOUR SHIPS
IN ONE
The aircraft carrier “Cavour” has been
projected to play four different roles: aircraft carrier, amphibious and logistic ship,
hospital ship, Command & Control ship.
Hospital ship
The medical capabilities of Cavour, that
may be regarded as a floating hospital as
well, are essential for crew support during
military operations; nevertheless, these
extensive capabilities are also crucial for
humanitarian and disaster relief operations.
The hospital has 3 hospitalization rooms
with 20 beds altogether (standard hospitalization), one ICU (Intensive Care Unit)
with 8 beds, 1 reanimation unit with 4
beds, 2 operating theaters, MRI and RX
machines, a dental cabinet, a pharmacy
and analysis laboratories.
Moreover, through high-speed satellite
data transmission and specific systems,
doctors aboard can take advantage of almost real time diagnosis made ashore by
additional radiologists and surgeons.
CVH550PORTAEREICAVOUR
Logistic and amphibious platform
Cavour may conduct amphibious operations by transporting and supporting a
fully equipped task force and her landing
units. Powerful EH-101 helicopters support
personnel and provide transportation of
weapons and supplies.
The ship’s hangar features multiple maintenance and storage areas and has two access ramps, one on the starboard side and
one astern; both of them allow boarding
by military vehicles of different sizes..
Command and control ship
The Cavour has been projected with enhanced command, control and communication capabilities.
With more than 1.200 square meters of
CIC (Combat Information Center – COC in
Italian, i.e. Centrale Operativa Combattimento), the ship has state-of-art VHF, video and data link capabilities. These areas
have 174 workstations linked each other in
a highly performing net.
Such tools give Cavour capabilities to command and conduct naval, air and amphibious warfare; at the same time she may
host aboard members of civilian units as
Civil Protection, non-governmental organizations, Red Cross, etc.
CVH550PORTAEREICAVOUR
ACTIVITY
PURSUED
Commissioned in 2008, the aircraft carrier
Cavour soon undertook a highly demanding training program that, in a short time,
granted her a full operational capability.
Among the ship’s activities in recent years
we may remember national and international exercises, the “White Crane” disaster
relief mission in support of Haitian population after a earthquake in January 2011,
and the circumnavigation of Africa in 2013
with Cavour being part of the 30th Naval
Group. Such activities have enhanced the
ship’s versatility and effectiveness as a result of the dual-use design concept that
has inspired her project
Cavour’s motto “In arduis servare mentem”,
meaning “In distress, keep your soul unruffled”, comes from one of Horace’s “Odes”.
CVH550PORTAEREICAVOUR
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