In 1942, FNS was tasked with the implementation of Operation C3, the planned conquest of Malta: according to the plan, 19 transport ships, 270 landing craft and about fifty other vessels, escorted by thirty destroyers and torpedo boats, were to land a total of 62,000 men (as well as 1,600 vehicles and 700 artillery pieces) on the island's coasts. Admiral Tur was to direct the landing operation; in order to implement the landing (35,000 men were scheduled to be landed on the first day of the invasion, followed by another 25,000 in the following days), FNS was strengthened with MZ-type landing craft, ML-type motor launches, "bragozzi", motor sailing vessels and lagoon "vaporetti" transformed into landing craft, railway ferries converted into landing ships, and several minelayers. In the first half of 1942, FNS, concentrated in Livorno, began training in landing operations along the coast of Tuscany, which had a rocky conformation similar to that of Malta; but in July 1942, due to the rapid Axis advance on the Libyan-Egyptian front, Operation C3 was postponed and then canceled.