Shipbuilder Intermarine has begun fiberglass hull lamination for the second in a new class of Italian Navy minehunters, the New-Generation Minehunter/Coastal (NGM/C), at its Sarzana shipyard.
The work falls under a 2024 contract from Italy’s Directorate of Naval Armaments covering a joint venture between Intermarine and Leonardo to build five advanced mine-countermeasure vessels. The programme is valued at 1.6 billion euros (about $1.8 billion), with options that could push the total to 2.6 billion euros (roughly $3 billion) once logistics support is included.
The 63-metre, 1,300-tonne NGM/C vessels use composite hulls engineered to withstand underwater shock while keeping the ship’s acoustic and magnetic signatures low, making it harder for mines to detect. The design also supports a mixed manned-unmanned approach, letting crews send autonomous systems ahead into mined waters rather than risking the ship itself. Beyond clearing mines, the vessels are also meant to monitor the seabed around undersea pipelines, power cables and communications lines.
The lead ship in the class has already moved into its outfitting phase ahead of a planned 2028 entry into service, and Intermarine says the second hull will follow the same build sequence, “setting a new standard for systems to counter the threat posed by naval mines.”
Italy’s investment in seabed-monitoring minehunters comes as European navies pay closer attention to the vulnerability of undersea infrastructure. A string of incidents in the Baltic Sea in recent years, involving damaged power and data cables, pushed NATO members to expand patrols and surveillance of pipelines and cables running through their waters. Mine warfare vessels built with sonar and unmanned underwater systems are well suited to that mission because they can loiter over sensitive seabed installations for long periods without needing a large crew, giving Italy a dual-purpose fleet that can clear historic minefields in the Adriatic and Mediterranean while also watching over the cables and pipelines that keep it connected to the rest of Europe.