Atlas of the aircraft-carrying cruiser Garibaldi (120)

The aircraft cruiser Giuseppe Garibaldi (hull number C551) is part of the Italian Navy.

Since Italy was a defeated country in World War II and the post-war treaty prohibited the possession of aircraft carriers, the Garibaldi was classified as an air cruiser, in fact a light aircraft carrier.

In the mid-1970s, in order to counter soviet power in the Mediterranean, so in the 1975-1984 decade of naval planning, the Italian Navy first proposed the construction of a "carrier cruiser", openly announcing that it would carry anti-submarine helicopters, but the navy required the ability to carry vertical/short take-off aircraft AV-8B, and could also become the flagship of the Italian Navy.

In November 1977, the Italian Navy signed a contract with the Italian Shipbuilding Group for the design of The Type 1092 ships, the helicopter carrier project, which was initially called the through deck cruiser, later also known as the helicopter cruiser, and when launched, it was also called the aviation escort cruiser.

Construction began on March 1981, Garibaldi was launched on 11 June 1983 and commissioned on 30 September 1985.

Due to the Soviet Union's military strength in the Mediterranean at that time, the Garibaldi had good anti-submarine capabilities in addition to excellent anti-submarine capabilities, as well as good anti-ship and air defense capabilities.

It was equipped with 4 "Teseo" Mk2 anti-ship missile launchers with an ammunition base of 10, but was dismantled in 2003 improvements.

2 x 8-seat "Albatross" short-range anti-aircraft missile launchers, equipped with "Viper" anti-aircraft missiles, ammunition base of 72 to 90 pieces.

3 "Breda" twin-barreled 40 mm rapid-fire guns.

Two B-515 triple 324 mm torpedo tubes, using MK-46, MU-90, A290 torpedoes.

The standard carrier mode of the Garibaldi is 8 AV-8Bs and 8 Neptunes, and in special cases, only 16 AV-8Bs or 18 Neptunes can also be carried.