Fincantieri transforms former OSV into multipurpose support vessel Tritone

Photo: Fincantieri

Fincantieri’s Underwater Technology Hub has delivered the multi-purpose support vessel Tritone to the Italian Navy. Originally built as an offshore service vessel, and delivered to Topaz Energy and Marine in 2010 as the Topaz Commander, the vessel has now been delivered to the Italian Navy following an extensive upgrade at Fincantieri’s Palermo, Sicily, under a contract announced in November 2025.

Designed to ensure maximum operational versatility, with specific reference to the underwater domain, the extensive upgrade program undertaken on the Tritone at the Palermo shipyard has enhanced its operational capabilities and strengthened its integration with the Italian Navy’s national command system.

The modular design and flexible layout of spaces make it possible to accommodate, handle, power, and maintain a wide range of payloads – including unmanned aerial, surface, and underwater systems – ensuring rapid reconfiguration based on the missions to be carried out. This modular architecture, says Fincantieri, represents “a key enabling factor, not only in terms of versatility but also from a long-term perspective, allowing the adoption of the most up-to-date technological systems without having to modify the host platform, thereby ensuring a high degree of adaptability to emerging operational requirements.”

The Tritone will also play a decisive role in supporting the definition of the requirements for any new vessels to be designed, specifically the Italian Navy’s future Multi-Purpose Underwater Domain Surveillance Vessels (UPSDS), which will join the fleet starting from 2031.

“The underwater domain is evolving into an increasingly complex ecosystem, where defense, dual-use and commercial applications converge, and where the protection of critical infrastructure, the mitigation of non-conventional threats and exploration activities require ever higher levels of technological integration,” noted Pierroberto Folgiero, Fincantieri CEO and managing director of Fincantieri. “In this context, the ability to integrate unmanned systems with traditional platforms represents a key factor in the evolution of maritime capabilities. With Tritone, Fincantieri reaffirms its industrial vision and its role as a technological enabler for the national system, recognizing the underwater domain as one of the strategic pillars of the 2026–2030 business plan and contributing to the strengthening of a technological sovereignty that is becoming ever more crucial for Italy’s future.”