Cassiopea-class patrol vessel

The Cassiopea class is a series of four heavy patrol vessels of the Italian Navy, built by Fincantieri at its Muggiano yard near La Spezia in the late 1980s to civilian, or mercantile, standards. They were meant for patrol in safe waters and for fishery protection, replacing the old Albatros-class corvettes, and were the simpler counterpart to the combat-capable Minerva-class corvettes. Funding for four of an originally planned eight ships was authorised in December 1982, orders followed in December 1986, and the first ship entered service in 1989. A further two ships were cancelled in 1991. Each ship has a single 76 mm gun reused from scrapped Bergamini-class frigates, a flight deck and hangar for an AB-212 helicopter, and equipment for dealing with pollution.