Italy is preparing to participate in an international mission for the security of the Strait of Hormuz, with the possible deployment of minehunters and support units also from the naval base in La Spezia.
This was reiterated yesterday by Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, stating that Europe in the Strait of Hormuz “will do its part. The problem is having a consolidated ceasefire and the possibility for ships to go there without a war zone, that is the first step.” “Once that is in place,” meaning the ceasefire, “discussions will begin,” he added.
The operation remains subject to Parliament’s approval, but the organizational machinery is already active on the Defense Minister’s instructions.
“In 20-25 days the minehunters could be present” in the area, specified Guido Crosetto, as part of an international operation to secure the Strait of Hormuz. The operations “both Aspides and Atalanta, if Europe decides to give them a configuration that expands to include, for example, the presence of minehunters, even in the Strait of Hormuz.”
A statement confirming the commitment made in Paris by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who indicated the willingness to provide Italian naval units in the presence of a “ceasefire” and subject to Parliament’s approval.
These would be the minehunters Crotone and Rimini, units specialized in defusing ordnance on the seabed, presumably escorted by the Fremm Margottini.
All the details.
ITALY’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE MISSION
Italy is ready to contribute to an international mission to secure the Strait of Hormuz.
However, the deployment of assets can only take place after a ceasefire and with Parliament’s approval, even in the absence of an explicit United Nations mandate, said Defense Minister Guido Crosetto in an interview with Corriere della Sera, explaining that for twenty days he has asked the top commanders of the Defense Staff and the Navy to be ready with two minehunter ships.
“The new closure of the Strait certainly does not surprise, because Hormuz has become the nerve center of this war. Iran understood that it could not fight it, nor win it on its territory, and expanded it to the Gulf countries, to Hormuz and therefore to the rest of the world,” Crosetto stated, according to whom “it will be a long, ongoing, complicated negotiation.”
THE MINEHUNTER FLEET BASED IN LA SPEZIA
And, in this context, the naval base in La Spezia is also ready to do its part.
Today La Spezia hosts the main base of the Italian Navy’s fleet of ten minehunters, part of the fifth naval division (COMFORDRAG). These include eight minehunters of the Gaeta class (Alghero, Chioggia, Crotone, Gaeta, Numana, Rimini, Termoli, Viareggio) commissioned between 1992 and 1996, and two from the previous Lerici class, dating back to 1985.
HOW ITALIAN MINEHUNTER SHIPS OPERATE
Not to be confused with minesweepers: both perform clearance functions, but in different ways: minesweepers are used to clear large areas of less sophisticated mines, such as those anchored to the seabed by cables or floating mines. They operate by detonating them through powerful electromagnetic or acoustic pulses generated by towed equipment, thus creating safe corridors for navigation. Minehunters, on the other hand, are equipped with more advanced technologies and are designed to detect and neutralize the latest generation bottom mines.
They are equipped with non-magnetic hulls, sonar, and remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) for hunting and destroying ordnance.
Crews of about forty people operate on board, including highly trained divers, who use high-frequency sonar to detect mines that are surfaced, anchored, or laid on the seabed and proceed to neutralize them.
As highlighted by the Navy’s website, “The mine is a simple weapon, very low cost and therefore available even to not particularly wealthy nations, but the threat it poses is deadly. The need to keep maritime communication lines open has forced all Navies to equip themselves with suitable means and qualified personnel for minefield clearance.”
The task of countermining – that is, attaching the explosive to the mine – falls to divers or robots capable of operating at great depths in case of high risk. In 2024 Intermarine (IMMSI group) and Leonardo won a contract for the supply of new generation coastal minehunters intended for the Italian Navy. Specifically, the contract provides for the supply of naval units for mine detection and clearance – New Generation Coastal Minehunters (CNG/C) and related integrated logistic support, valued at 1.6 billion for the construction of 5 units and about 1 billion in options to complete the program.
POSSIBLE SHIPS INVOLVED IN THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ: NAVE CROTONE
Two, according to rumors, are the ships most likely to take part in the mission: the ships Crotone and Rimini. Both are already engaged in operations in the Mediterranean Sea, and in this case the choice would be influenced by the need to reduce transfer and mission start times.
The minehunter Crotone is the fifth of eight units of the Lerici 2nd series class (also known as Gaeta class), launched on May 11, 1992, and delivered to the Navy on June 14, 1994. Its usual home port is La Spezia. Nave Crotone is a Mine Hunter Coastal type unit specifically designed for the localization and deactivation/destruction of naval mines. For these operations, the unit is equipped with a sophisticated sonar system that can be deployed up to 270 meters, and two remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), through which it is possible to detect and investigate any object lying on the seabed up to depths of about 600 meters, the Navy website further explains.
AND NAVE RIMINI
Nave Rimini is the youngest of the eight Lerici 2nd series class minehunter units. Its usual home port is La Spezia. Like Crotone, Nave Rimini is also a Mine Hunter Coastal type unit. Launched on September 17, 1994, and delivered to the Italian Navy by the Intermarine shipyards of Sarzana at the Pagliari pier in La Spezia on November 26, 1996, it had its operational baptism with Operation Alba Advanced Party in the Port of Durazzo in 1997, operating in Albanian territorial waters contributing to the establishment of a humanitarian corridor for the Albanian population, and in 1998 it began its training activity in the North Sea, at the Mine Hunter Order Sea Training (MOST), a center of excellence for mine warfare training located in Ostend, Belgium.
ESCORTED BY A FRIGATE
The two minehunters from La Spezia, regardless of the choice made by the Navy leadership, may not be the only ones participating in the mission. Minehunters often require a frigate and a logistical support ship, such as Etna, Vulcano, or Atlante.
In recent hours, the possibility of employing a frigate as a naval escort has emerged, to provide armed coverage to the international contingent.
MISSION UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE UN
Finally, Defense Minister Crosetto expressed hope for this mission to be under the auspices of the United Nations: “I hope there will be UN auspices, but I will not be formalistic if instead there are 42 nations with a mandate and a multilateral peace force.”
The minister added that “the international community will be able to access Hormuz only after the ceasefire, so as not to find itself in a war zone” and reiterated that the government will in any case go through a parliamentary vote, defined as “due, mandatory, fundamental.”
“The issue we are addressing is not to conduct an operation as Europe. It is not a European operation, the Strait of Hormuz is a problem for the whole world, especially for Asia, because most of that energy goes to Asia, much more than what comes to Europe,” the minister explained.
“I keep saying that the solution – but this is also true for the entire Italian government and I think for all European governments – is that the UN can finally make a decision and that it is not blocked at the Security Council by any of the nations. But, as you all know, at the Security Council there is China and Russia,” he concluded.
For Italy, this would be a return to Hormuz forty years after a similar mission in 1987, which saw the eighteenth naval group engaged in escorting civilian shipping during the Iran-Iraq war.
