The Ardito class of destroyers consisted of two ships—Ardito and Ardente—that were built for the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) in the 1910s.

Design

The ships of the Ardito class were 74.8 m (245 ft 5 in) long at the waterline and 73 m (239 ft 6 in) long overall, with a beam of 7.3 m (23 ft 11 in) and a draft of 2.4 m (7 ft 10 in). They displaced 695 long tons (706 t) standard and up to 790 long tons (800 t) at full load. They had a crew of 4 officers and 65 enlisted men. The ships were powered by two Parsons steam turbines, with steam provided by four Thornycroft water-tube boilers. The engines were rated to produce 16,000 shaft horsepower (12,000 kW) for a top speed of 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph), though in service they reached as high as 33.4 knots (61.9 km/h; 38.4 mph) from 15,733 shp (11,732 kW). At a more economical speed of 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph), the ships could cruise for 1,200 nautical miles (2,200 km; 1,400 mi).^[1]

The ships carried an armament that consisted of a single 120 mm (4.7 in) gun and four 76 mm (3 in) guns, along with two 450 mm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes. The 102 mm gun was placed on the forecastle and the two of the 76 mm guns were mounted abreast the funnels, with the remaining pair at the stern. The torpedo tubes were in single mounts, both on the centerline.^[1]

Ships

Service history

Ardito was struck from the naval register on 2 October 1931 and discarded, while Ardente remained in the navy's inventory until 11 March 1937, when she too was struck and broken up.^[2]