Today he took off for his last trip nave Boldness (D 551, 1973-2006) directed to the site of Aliaga in Turkey where he will reach the destroyer Ardito (D 550, 1973-2006).
The two Naval Units, true story icons not only of the Navy, for more than 35 years of service have represented a flagship of the country, in Italy and abroad, participating in numerous operational missions in different basins of the world, ensuring, at the same time, great consensus and prestige to the armed force and to the nation.
After leaving the service active in the 2006, after more than ten years of mooring at the docks of the base of La Spezia, in December 2017 the two ships were sold, by the Agency Industrie Difesa (AID), by means of an international public auction within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), at the Turkish shipyard Istanbul Shipyard.
The physiological "start of recycling" of the two former Navy ships certainly represents a loss of a piece of our maritime history, however, the sale to the wrecking yard has ensured an influx of resources for maintenance on the Naval Units of the Navy which will be carried out by the national industrial plants.
To date, in the various sources of the Armed Force, an ever-increasing number of vehicles that are being abandoned due to objective aging are awaiting the start of recycling and / or concrete proposals for "recovery" for other purposes - such as "museum installations" .
In June, further decisions will have to be taken, therefore, for the possible "recycling" of other naval units with a glorious past, symbols of history of the navy and Italian shipbuilding industry for many years in disarmament, which have been often associated with musealization projects.
The Military Navy has always expressed itself favorably for this solution but at the same time it has always been clear that, not having the resources available for this purpose, the relative costs of reclamation, safety, transfer and museum preparation must necessarily be borne by the Administrations / Proposing institutions.
Unfortunately, as of today, the Armed Forces have not received any financially and technically concrete initiatives for these disused Units and the conditions have now been reached that the Navy can not continue to support their maintenance in safety conditions, subtracting financial resources. intended for the needs of the operational units.
Insights
Il destroyer Boldness (D 551, 1973-2006), eponymous of the class of two missile launchers with strong air defense capabilities, participated in numerous national and allied training cycles as well as in the most important real operations that took place between the 80s and 90s of the last century . In particular, we recall the participation in the "Lebanon 2" operation (February - April 1984) in support of our peace contingent from that country, in the "Girasole" operation (April - July 1986) following the Italy-Libya crisis, at "Operation Sharp Guard" (November 1993 - June 1994), for the application of economic sanctions and the arms embargo decided by the numerous resolutions of the United Nations Security Council against Yugoslavia, to the "Dinak" operation (February - May 1999) and “Allied Force” (June-July 1999) conducted, respectively, at national and NATO level, during the so-called “Kosovo war”.
Il destroyer Ardito (D 550, 1973-2006), second unit of the "Audace" class, was the ship's flag ship made up of the same Audace and the frigate Lupo missile launcher that made the 24 ^ circumnavigation of the world between July 1979 and February 1980. Intense participation, also for Ardito ship, was the participation in important national and international exercises, as well as in real operations. These include the aforementioned operations "Dinak" and "Allied Force", to which the unit took part, respectively, in March and in June of the 1999.