Aldebaran Frigate.

[Conte_Baracca 4,547]

With the shortage of ships available to the Marina Militare in the decade after the end of World War 2 they often had to turn to surplus American vehicles.  In 1951 The US government transferred three Cannon class destroyer escorts to the new Italian Navy under the Military Assistance Program.  These ships would become the Aldebaran Class of frigates in the Marina Militare.  The ships, all; named for celestial bodies,  were the Aldebaran F 590 (former USS Thornhill), the Altair F 591 (former USS Gandy), and the Andromeda F 592 (former USS Wesson). .   All three of the vessels would commission into the Marina Militare in 1951.  The Altair was stricken and sunk as a target in 1971.  The Andromeda would be scrapped in 1972 and the Aldebaran would enter the scrapyards in 1976.

 

The lead ship of the class, the Aldeberan, served in World War 2 under American colors.  Then the USS Thornhill the ship was named after Leonard W. Thornhill a naval torpedo bomber pilot who participated in Midway where he fearlessly made torpedo runs on the Japanese carriers, but would lose his life when his aircraft ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean.  The ship would commission in 1944 and conduct 5 total escort missions across the Atlantic.  These escort missions, at this stage of the war, were unsurprisingly quiet and the vessel saw no combat action.  In June of 1945 she began the long trek to the Pacific theater and arrived in Eniwetok after the war ended

 

Aldeberan F 590

 

Aldeberan F 590

 

 

The Italians would keep the ships in the same configuration as received from the United States.  Thus these vessels were all in their as build Cannon class specifications of:

 

Displacement:    1,620 long tons (1,646 t) full
Length    306 ft (93 m) o/a 300 ft (91 m) w/l
Beam    36 ft 10 in (11.23 m)
Draft    11 ft 8 in (3.56 m)
Propulsion    4 × GM Mod. 16-278A diesel engines with electric drive, 6,000 shp (4,474 kW), 2 screws
Speed    21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph)
Range    10,800 nmi (20,000 km) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement    15 officers and 201 enlisted
Armament  3 × single Mk.22 3"/50 caliber guns, 1 × twin 40 mm Mk.1 AA gun, 8 × 20 mm Mk.4 AA guns, 3 × 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 1 × Hedgehog Mk.10 anti-submarine mortar (144 rounds), 8 × Mk.6 depth charge projectors 2 × Mk.9 depth charge tracks

 

The Cannon class was a wartime project of the US navy for providing convoy escort service focused on antisubmarine warfare.  There were a total of 72 of them built and they ended up serving in the navies of many nations both during World War 2 and after.  In fact the Royal Thai Navy currently operates the HTMS Pin Klao (formerly the USS Hemminger) as a training ship.  One of the most interesting features of the class was its use of a Diesel Electric drive in a diesel electric tandem drive system.  Otherwise they were typical of the many Destroyer Escort classes built by the United States during World War 2.

 

I am proposing that one of these vessels, the Aldebaran as she is the lead ship, be added to the Italian Coastal Tech Tree as a Frigate class vessel.  It has would be a fairly large and heavily armed frigate by War Thunder's standards.  Although this is an American vessel under Italian colors I do believe that Italy needs a lot of post war vessels in order to be competitive in the current state of the game.  While purely Italian vessels should be a priority the Aldeberan class could be an excellent event/battlepass option for the Italian Coastal Tree.

 

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldebaran-class_frigate

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannon-class_destroyer_escort

https://www.navypedia.org/ships/italy/it_es_aldebaran.htm

https://www.navypedia.org/ships/usa/us_de_det.htm

https://www.marina.difesa.it/noi-siamo-la-marina/mezzi/mezzi-storici/Pagine/ABCD/aldebaran.aspx

http://www.navsource.org/archives/06/195.htm

 

Respectfully Submitted,

                     Conte Baracca.

[leroyonly 4,310]

Open for discussion. 

[Nicholas_Concu 2,634]

+1 

[John4Plays 70]

Heck yeah, love it!

+1 from me!

[IngegnerMacchi 623]

+1 i would love it a lot! since the italian navy is one of the biggest IRL and in game is kind of a push over.. would make it more interesting!

[S__bastienZ88 635]

+1

[Iskads 104]

Would be a cool premium +1

[camelcabal 28]

I agree +1

[Milocat 4,848]

+1, would be a great frigate to add for Italy.

[AVROVULCANXH558 349]

+1

[ironcell26 252]

+1

[ItalianAce02 40]

+1