''Alliance'' (A5345) is a

research vessel A research vessel (RV or R/V) is a ship or boat designed, modified, or equipped to carry out research at sea. Research vessels carry out a number of roles. Some of these roles can be combined into a single vessel but others require a dedicated ...

owned by

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

and operated by the

Marina Militare The Italian Navy (; abbreviated as MM) is one of the four branches of Italian Armed Forces and was formed in 1946 from what remained of the '' Regia Marina'' (Royal Navy) after World War II. , the Italian Navy had a strength of 30,923 active pe ...

as a

research vessel and owned by the ''CMRE – Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation'', in

La Spezia La Spezia (, or ; ; , in the local ) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy. La Spezia is the second-largest city in the Liguria ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. ''Alliance'' has the status of an auxiliary ship of the Marina Militare. The function of the ''Alliance'' is to conduct a wide range of acoustic, oceanographic research and engineering technology tasks on behalf of NATO, Marina Militare and third party organizations when 'on hire' for charters in global waters. The design and construction of the vessel was done to create a versatile research platform that is adaptable to the Centre's needs and reduce noise output to the lowest possible level in order to minimize interference with research work.

History

Commissioned on 15 April 1988 to SACLANT (Undersea Research Centre – SACLANTCEN, then named

Underwater Research Centre – NURC and now ''CMRE – Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation'') of

, under the German flag. ''Alliance'' was transferred to the Italian naval flag on 9 April 2016. The vessel is crewed and operated on behalf of NATO by the

under a Memorandum of Understanding signed on 22 December 2015. It took part in Nordic Recognized Environmental Picture research mission, a multi-year oceanographic research project that started in 2017 and has been conducted in different parts of the Arctic Ocean. The mission assess the impact of climate change in the Arctic, in particular, how the transformation of the Arctic affects sonar performance.

General information

Source: * primary working area (aft): * secondary working area (forward): * maintenance, support and all Labs: * scientific storage areas: 500 m3 * capacity to embark up to 5 standard ISO1C, , and up to 3 standard ISO 1D, , containers

Sensing devices

* multibeam echo sounder

Kongsberg Kongsberg () is a historical mining town and municipality in Buskerud county, Norway. The city is located on the river Numedalslågen at the entrance to the valley of Numedal. Kongsberg has been a centre of silver mining, arms production and fo ...

br>SIMRAD EM-302
30 kHz * echo sounder Atlas Deso 30, 33 kHz * echo sounder Atlas deso 25, 210 kHz * echo sounder FWC, 100 kHz * SMS Sound Velocity Probe C Sonde SVP 10 * acoustic tracking system * E.M. Speed Log Skipper DL850, 270 kHz * Acoustic Range and Bearing Indicator, 9–11 kHz * Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) RDI, 75 kHz * Conductivity/temperature sensor Sea Bird, 8–12 kHz * Underwater telephon
ELAC LAZ5100
, 8-11.5 kHz

Communication systems

There are two independent systems for ship communications and for scientific trials (with some overlap). The ship system, which uses radios complying with SOLAS and

GMDSS The Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) is a worldwide system for automated emergency signal communication for ships at sea developed by the United Nations' International Maritime Organization (IMO) as part of the SOLAS Convention. ...

rules, includes Inmarsat systems (e-mail, fax and phone). * 2 x Elmer ST-1075, 1000 watt HF transmitter * 2 x Elmer ST-675, 600 watt HF transmitter * 2 x Elmer SRT-619, UHF transceiver * Sailor RT144C, VHF transceiver *

Furuno (commonly known as Furuno) is a Japanese electronics company whose main products are marine electronics, including marine radar systems, fish finders, and navigational instruments. The company also manufactures global positioning systems an ...

FM-2510, VHF transceiver *

Kelvin Hughes Hensoldt UK, formerly Kelvin Hughes, is a British company specialising in the design and manufacture of navigation and surveillance systems and a supplier of navigational data to both the commercial marine and government marketplace. The company ...

Band V-Sat SATCOM, Satellite Communication System

References

External links