Fregata Federico Martinengo headed to Cyprus: radar at two hundred km and Aster ready to neutralize threats

by Lorenzo Attaniese

A crew of over 160 men from the Italian Navy is ready to head to Cyprus aboard the missile frigate Federico Martinengo to defend the island from attacks coming from Iran or Lebanon: they will be able to detect potential drones or rockets with radar from about two hundred kilometers away, while the Aster missiles, active within a range of one hundred kilometers, could neutralize the threats. This type of operation is not new for the Martinengo, which last year concluded its commitment in the European mission Eunavfor Aspides in the Red Sea, returning to the naval base in Taranto after protecting merchant traffic from the threats of the Houthi in Yemen.

The new mission, already announced by Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, will take place within a fully European framework in coordination with Spain, France, and the Netherlands, which will send their own ships.

The urgency is to prevent the escalation in the Middle East, which has effectively extended to the territory of the European Union, from widening further. In the skies over Cyprus - which hosts strategic military infrastructures - several drones have been neutralized, one of which last March reached the British military base and struck the runway, which in the preceding days had also been indicated for the use of U.S. fighter jets. Incidents like this had already triggered an initial chain of assistance: Greece has moved a battery of the Patriot system to the island of Karpathos in the eastern Aegean, while Spain and Britain were the first to send ships to Cyprus.

The Italian Martinengo - one of the most advanced configurations of the Italian naval defense - is equipped with anti-aircraft and anti-ship missiles, cannons, and torpedoes. It can also accommodate helicopters and is outfitted with sophisticated radar and sonar systems. However, it is not the only support that Italy will provide: discussions are ongoing regarding the aid to Gulf countries announced in recent days, due to the constantly changing scenarios. Moving the powerful Samp T surface-to-air defense system to Kuwait or the Emirates is not an easy operation, and it will be necessary to understand whether, with a gradual reduction of the Iranian arsenal, its use will prove necessary or if other tools will be needed. The use of the Italian-French anti-aircraft system would then require a team of at least seventy people specifically trained and capable of operating at various positions, from command to radar to each launcher. Other devices, such as stingers or drones themselves, might not require the deployment of personnel. Rome also has radar and a series of electronic intelligence tools through the satellite network.

Meanwhile, operations to empty the Ali al Salem base in Kuwait continue, which was hit again after the first attack last Saturday, without any significant damage reported to the two Italian F2000 fighters present: "Only projections of shrapnel", informed sources assure. A partial evacuation has already been ordered, with a movement of 239 Italian soldiers towards Saudi Arabia: of the 321, 82 will remain.