Audace - class destroyer The " Audace " class destroyers were two guided missile destroyer s built for the Italian Navy during the Cold War . An improvement of the " Impavido " class , these ships were designed for area air defence and also had a heavy gun armament . They were fitted with contemporary American radars and sonars , but also they were fitting , just as the next Italian ships , they fitted all the new weapons made by Italian industry of the time , such torpedoes , helicopters and guns . Also some indigenous radars were fitted . Design . The design of these ships was related to the previous " Impavido " class , but they were meant as a decisive improvement over these older vessels . In fact , they were built with a hull capable of better resisting high sea conditions , and this hull was also lengthened enough with an aft superstructure capable of accommodating 2 AB - 212ASW helicopters . This gave the capability for anti - submarine warfare , with improved sonars and torpedo tubes . The superstructures , which were quite tall , were built with aluminium alloys , in two blocks with one mack ( this is the combination with the funnels supporting metallic , short trees used for radar equipment ) each . The distance between the two superstructures block was notably high , because at midship there were both the propulsion systems , and over this , the 76 mm gun battery . The aft superstructure was dedicated to Tartar / SM - 1 missiles and hangar . The propulsion had two powerful steam - turbine system , on two shafts . It allowed around 33 knots and a quite good endurance . Armament . With this new design , in order to perform ASW tasks , it was decided to adopt a powerful dedicated weapon . But instead of adopting ASROC , it decided to use the A . 184 wired torpedoes . These weapons had both ASW and AS capabilities , and while it did not have impressive performance ( roughly 10 – 12 km / 36 knots , 24 km / 24knts ) being a conventional electrical torpedo , it was one of the better models of its time and was modernized with several updates . It was also one of the first to have both ASW and AS ( Anti - ship ) capabilities , while in 1970s many torpedoes were built to have one or the other capability , lacking wire - guidance or homing sonar guidance . Twelve examples were on board , just as many as the smaller light torpedoes A . 244 or Mk46 models with triple ILAS - 3 launchers . A . 244 had better shallow - waters capabilities , but basically they were limited in performances to Mk . 44 level , while Mk . 46 were better suited to attack depth and fast targets . The gunnery armament consisted of 6 guns of a new generation , fully automatic and with high rate of fire : 2 Compact , 127mm guns ( foredeck ) in single mounts , capable to fire at least 40 shells / minute , while ( in substitution of unsatisfactory Model MM guns ) new 76mm Compact were at mid - ship . Despite weighting only 7 t , they had enough firepower : 80 c . min , with 85 ready ammunition under the deck in a rapid reloading system similar , as example , to T - 72 or T - 80 gun reloading systems . Together with 127 mm and the main air - defence system ( Tartar / SM - 1 ) , all this weaponry made possible an effective air defence , both long range and close - in . Helicopters . Aft , there was the hangar for two AB212ASW , medium helicopters modified ( after the experience with the smaller AB205ASW ) by Agusta to perform naval roles , like anti - submarine tasks , SAR , anti - ship search and attack ( with only small AS - 12 missiles ) . These helicopters were quite big , comparable to the Westland Lynx , and so , the hangar literally sieged the SM - 1 / Tartar depots for the Mk 13 launcher . These two helicopters were second in importance only to the SM - 1 missile systems , because torpedoes and guns were mainly useful for close defence of the ship . Audace were meant to carry an effective area - defence SAM and helicopters , while guns and torpedoes were short range defence systems . All by all , Audace had six modern guns ( of two different calibers ) and four torpedo launchers ( with 14 tubes , two different caliber as well ) , a really uncommon amount for a modern ship . Electronics . As electronic set , there was Despite the improvements in anti - aircraft warfare , and maybe even more marked , in the ASW capability , there were still limitation and shortcomings in this new vessel design . The weaponry lacked a specific anti - ship missiles system , except the AS - 12 . Within short range , however , there were many systems able to engage naval targets : A . 184 , 2x127mm and 4x76mm guns , the Tartar / SM - 1MR missiles in their second role ( like many naval SAMs ) . There was not a real CIWS system on board , relating only to the massive firepower of artilleries , but at aft ship none of them can fire , so despite so many guns , there were still blind spots in the defence at low altitudes , covered ( in the aft sector ) only by Tartar / SM - 1 , not meant as anti - missile system . Modernisation . In 1988 - 1989 they underwent extensive modernisations : it included the replacement of one 127 mm gun turrets and also the A . 184 torpedoes with new weapons : a " Teseo " SSM system ( midship , between the 76mm guns ) and an eight - cell " Albatros " " Aspide " SAM launcher ( directly replacing the 127mm turret ) . The four 76 / 62 mm guns remained , but the Compact model was replaced by 76 / 62 Super Rapido ( 120 rpm , meant especially for anti - ship missile defence ) . The Tartar SAM complex was replaced by the RIM - 66 Standard Missile SM - 1 system . So , with this new systems , these ships were able to cope with all the requirements : thanks to the Superapido and Albatross they had a much improved close - defence , especially against missiles , while OTOMAT allowed a long range , anti - ship capability , together with AB - 212 for targeting over the horizon . All this helped to bring these ships almost to the same level of the new de La Penne class , in 1991 still under construction , with even more weaponry ( 1 Super Rapido gun ) . What remained unsolved was the lack of a VDS ( variable depth sonar ) , the construction vulnerability , with the tall supestructures made in aluminium ( and so vulnerable to fire ) , the excessive amount of weapons and explosives in the small hull ( especially in the aft superstructure , that in 20 meters concentrated both hangar and SAM depots ) , some spartan solution for hosting the crew of 380 , and the lack of an aft close - defence weapon ( solved only with de La Penne ) , despite 6 were available at flanks and foredeck ( but the 4 Super - Rapido were placed at mid - ship , unable to fire directly both forward and behind , while the only tree of de La Penne were able to cover all 360° ) . Also , the engine was of an outdated model , potentially ( boilers ) also dangerous and slow to operate as start . All these ships suffered also for the age and the intense sea service , so their operative life was almost expired at the end of the 20th century , and only the delays of Horizon program allowed them to service for several years than expected . Ships . The units were based in La Spezia and took part in many missions , such as the Lebanon crisis in 1982 , and Gulf crisis in 1990 - 91 . They were both retired in 2005 .