Built as guided missile destroyer under yard No 283 by Cantieri Navali Riunite e Cantieri del Tirreno, Riva Trigoso, for the Italian Navy.
27 April 1968 keel laid down.
02 October 1971 launched as the AUDACE (D 551), one sister the ARDITO.
Displacement 3,201 tons standard, 4,554 tons full load. Dim. 140.7 x 14.7 x 4.5m. (draught)
Powered by geared steam turbines, 73,000 shp., twin shafts, speed 33 knots.
Range by a speed of 25 knots, 4,000 mile.
Armament when built: 2 – 127mm Otobreda, 4 – 76mm Otto Melara guns, 1 – Tartar SAM launcher.
2 – 324mm torpedo launchers and 2 -533mm torpedo launchers.
Carried two AB212 ASW helicopters.
Crew 380.
16 November 1972 commissioned. Based at La Spezia.
She took part in many missions such as the Lebanon crisis in 1982 and Gulf crisis in 1990-1991.
Between 1988 and 1989 she underwent a modernization, where her 2 – 533mm stern torpedo tubes were removed.
Armament 1 – Otobreda 127 mm gun. 4 – Oto Melara 76mm Super Rapido gun. 1 – MK 29 octuple launcher for Sea Sparrow/Selenia Aspide SAM. 1 – MK 13 launchers with 40 Standard SM-1MR missiles, 8 – Otomat SSMs, 2 – 324 mm triple torpedo launchers.
28 September 2006 decommissioned.
Italy 1980 200li sg1692, scott?
Source Jane’s Fighting Ships. The World’s Navies. More info on the class http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audace_class_destroyer[*]