Impavido class destroyer

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Class overview
Impavido.
Operators:	Marina Militare
Preceded by:	Impetuoso
Succeeded by:	Audace
In commission:	21 November 1963 - 15 July 1992
Completed:	2
Retired:	2
General characteristics
Displacement:	3,940 tons full load
Length:	130.9
Beam:	13.6 m
Draught:	4.5 m
Propulsion:	2 shaft geared turbines 4 Foster Wheeler boilers, 70,000 hp
Speed:	34 knots
Range:	6,000 miles at 16 knots
Complement:	333
Armament:	1 × Tartar SAM system 2 × 127/38 mm gun 4 × 76/62 mm gun 2 x 533 mm triple torpedo launchers
Aircraft carried:	1 helicopter

The Impavido class were the second group of destroyers built for the Italian Navy after World War II and the first Italian Guided Missile destroyers.

Similar in performance to the American Charles F. Adams class, these ships were essentially improved Impetuoso class destroyers, with the after gun turret replaced by a Tartar Surface to Air Missile launcher and associated radar. Apart from the same main armament of 'Adams', the emphasis of the weaponry was focused on anti-aircraft equipments, so the secondary armament wasn't the ASROC missile, but a battery of 76mm automatic guns fitted in the midship. The 127mm guns remained, however, the same of wartime, Mk 38, while Adams had the newer Mk 42 covering all the horizon thanks to their disposition, fore and aft deck.

These ships were important because they represented the first of the missile destroyers of MMI and lasted in service for many years, even if they hadn't any important update and so they were progressive obsolescent ships. Characteristic of these ship were superstructures, with a much less clean layout than the further classes, and the double lines of windows in the main turrion, similar to Alpino frigates.

They were both retired in 1991.