From the moment they made their debut during the First World War, the aircraft carrier have gradually established themselves as a irreplaceable element of naval strategies of all those countries that, from time to time, have had the technical capabilities and political will–strategic to deploy them and keep them in service, despite the exorbitant operating costs. Nowadays they are in service approx 50 aircraft carriers in the world at 15 different navies, with the Italian Navy which falls into this elite club currently having available two aircraft carriers in active service: a light aircraft carrier in service, the Cavourand a second unit, the amphibious assault ship Trieste.
The Regia Marina and the Italian ships Aquila and Sparviero
Italy’s interest in aircraft carriers comes from afar and dates back to the period between the two world wars, when the deep-sea combat nucleus of the navies of the great powers was still made up of battleships and battlecruisers. In the 1926 and in 1927at the request of the then Royal Navythe construction sites Ansaldo of Genoa work began on two aircraft carriers which were renamed respectively “Eagle” And “Sparrowhawk”. Curiously, these naval units did not constitute vessels from scratch since to obtain them the hulls of two transatlantic liners were converted, respectively the “SS Roma” and the “MS Augustus”.
The work, however, proceeded slowly, not to mention the fact that the Royal Navy never managed to develop operational doctrines dedicated to the use of the aforementioned aircraft carriers, so much so that they were still incomplete not only at the time of Italy’s entry into the Second World War (1940) but still on the date of the armistice (8 September 1943). Predictably, the two incomplete units were captured by the Germans who, on 5 October 1944, they sank the Sparviero at the entrance to the port of Genoa to block access to the Allies.
As regards theEagle instead, being 90% completed at the time of capture, it was chosen by the Germans as future aircraft carrier for their Kriegsmarinebut their plans were frustrated as it came repeatedly damaged by air attacks by Allies. Finally the ship came sunk on the night between 18 and 19 April 1945 during an operation by the naval raiders of the Mariaiuto, that part of the 10th MAS Flotilla, which after 8 September 1943 had remained faithful to the Kingdom of Italy, now a co-belligerent with the Allies.
The aircraft carrier Garibaldi during the Second World War
At the end of the Second World War, the hulls of the Aquila and the Sparviero were recovered and dismantled. Decades had to pass before Italy could venture into the field of aircraft carrier construction again, given that the clauses of the peace treaties sealing the end of the Second World War they prohibited expressly our country to equip itself with this class of ships with a markedly offensive role.
Things changed only several decades later when, on March 26th 1981at the shipyards of Fincantieri of Monfalcone (Trieste) the works began which culminated in the construction of the aircraft carrier “Giuseppe Garibaldi”which subsequently entered service on 30 September 1985. The first true “all-deck” aircraft carrier of our blue weapon, the Garibaldi was originally designed to act as a command center around which to organize a task force assigned to anti-submarine warfare. However, the presence of a decent air component on board (about twenty McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II fighter-bombers and Sikorski-Augusta SH-3D Sea King and AugustaWestland AW101 helicopters) soon allowed it to expand its use scenarios.
Overall, the Garibaldi served under the insignia of the Navy for 39 years, from 30 September 1985 until 1 October 2024accumulating a respectable career and participating in Italian military operations in Somalia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Libya. Despite having been confined to inactivity for about a year, the Garibaldi is not technically decommissioned and could be brought back into service within a reasonable timeframe should necessity require it. Furthermore, in March 2025 rumors emerged regarding a possible sale of the vessel to the Indonesian Navyalthough the contours of the negotiations between the interested parties are not clear.
Cavour and Trieste, Italy’s two aircraft carriers in service today
However, the end of the Garibaldi’s operational career did not mean the end of the use of aircraft carriers by the Italian Navy, given that in the meantime many other two aircraft carriers entered service. As part of the strengthening of the naval component of the Italian military instrument, in the early 2000s it was built by Riva Trigoso shipyards in Sestri Levante (always part of the Fincantieri group) the “Cavour”entered into service on June 10, 2009 and today flagship of the Navy.
During its 16 years of operational life, the Cavour has participated in numerous joint exercises with the navies of allied countries but, with the exception of the deployment at the time of the Libyan War in 2011, it has not had the opportunity to distinguish itself in actual theaters of war.
The same thing can be said of the even younger one “Trieste”entered into service on December 7, 2024 as a replacement for the aforementioned Garibaldi. To be precise, unlike the Garibaldi and the Cavour, which are aircraft carriers to all intents and purposes, the Trieste was classified as Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD), therefore it would be expressly dedicated to the use of helicopters. However, Italy’s purchase of fighter-bombers F-35B vertical take-off has de facto made the Trieste comparable in all respects to a full-fledged aircraft carrier as regards the possibilities of use.
Having two aircraft carriers in active service today, the Italian Navy can therefore boast a respectable projection capacity, at least in the Mediterranean area, and, budgets permitting, Italy’s permanence in the restricted club of aircraft carrier operators seems to be assured for decades to come.
