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Italy Launches M3A Program To Rebuild Maritime Patrol And Anti-Submarine Warfare Strength.
Italy’s Ministry of Defence has approved the M3A program, a joint Navy–Air Force effort to rebuild maritime patrol and anti-submarine capabilities lost with the retirement of the BR1150 Atlantic. The move signals Rome’s intent to reinforce Mediterranean surveillance and maritime security under its 2025–2027 defense plan.
Italy is preparing a new maritime patrol and response capability designed to restore high-end anti-submarine and anti-surface coverage across the Mediterranean operating areas. According to Documento Programmatico Pluriennale della Difesa 2025-2027 (DPP 2025-2027), the Ministry of Defence plans a joint Navy–Air Force program centered on six Maritime Multi-Mission Aircraft (M3A) to replace capacity lost with the retirement of the BR1150 platform. The initiative is positioned as a near-term start, with major funding aligned to the 2025 financial year under Italy’s latest budget law.
The image shows two Italian maritime patrol aircraft in flight: the older BR.1150 Atlantic in the foreground, marking its retirement, and the newer P-72A (ATR-72MP) flying behind it, symbolizing the transition of Italy’s long-range maritime patrol capability (Picture Source: Italian MoD)
The M3A program is explicitly framed as an inter-service effort to close a declared capability gap in long-range maritime patrol and response. The requirement calls for six aircraft configured to execute Anti-Submarine Warfare, Anti-Surface Warfare, Above-Water Warfare, Mine Warfare, and multi-intelligence tasking, including intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, reconnaissance, and electronic warfare. By stressing layered roles from deep-water ASW through AWW/MW and ISR/EW, the documents set out a single fleet intended to carry the bulk of blue-water and littoral sensing and strike tasks that were dispersed or downgraded after the BR1150 left service.
Financially, the program benefits from a fresh allocation in the 2025 Budget Law: the annex to the DPP records a €576 million integration “a fabbisogno” dedicated to M3A. The same annex displays the broader planning profile for the program, with €562 million mapped in 2025, €30 million programmed across 2028–2030, and further out-year resources (“anni successivi”) of €544 million to carry the effort to completion. These figures indicate both urgency, front-loading resources in 2025, and a multi-year sustainment and completion trajectory.
Beyond the aircraft themselves, the DPP outlines a complementary modernization arc that will strengthen maritime domain effects the M3A is meant to cue and support. In the underwater arena, Italy is investing in large autonomous underwater vehicles to expand unmanned ISR and ASW reach, assets that dovetail with an MPA’s wide-area detection, localization, and cueing role. In the air domain, Italy is simultaneously upgrading multi-mission and electronic-effects fleets (PMMMS on G-550 in CAEW/JAMMS/EA variants), reinforcing the C6-ISTAR-EW backbone that underpins tasking, data fusion, and targeting for maritime operations. At the policy level, the DPP emphasizes bolstering ASW/ASuW and maritime surveillance as core priorities for the naval component, providing the conceptual context for re-introducing a high-end MPA.
The new M3A fleet is therefore not a standalone purchase but the centerpiece of a synchronized rebuild of Italy’s long-range maritime sensing and strike enterprise. With six aircraft scoped for ASW, ASuW, AWW, MW, and multi-intelligence missions, immediate 2025 funding and a defined out-year path, the program signals a decisive intent to restore persistent, sovereign control of the underwater and surface picture in Italy’s extended maritime approaches—turning a documented capability gap into a renewed operational advantage. Italy’s current maritime multi-mission aircraft capability is centered on four P-72A (ATR-72MP) operated by the 41° Stormo at Sigonella. The type delivers maritime surveillance, ISR and SAR with Leonardo’s ATOS mission system, EO/IR turret, ESM and surface-search radar, and has frequently supported national and Frontex missions. However, since the BR.1150 Atlantic’s retirement in 2017, Italy has lacked a dedicated fixed-wing ASW platform; the P-72A has primarily filled a patrol/ISR role pending the arrival of a higher-end MPA. This gap is precisely what the M3A seeks to close.
Beyond fixed-wing patrol, rotary-wing ASW/ASuW capacity remains strong. The Navy has completed deliveries of its NH90 NFH fleet and operates AW101/SH-101 for blue-water ASW and multirole tasks, providing dipping sonar, sonobuoy processing and lightweight torpedo employment from escort vessels. These helicopter capabilities anchor the close-in layer that a future M3A would extend into wide-area detection and prosecution. This airborne picture is increasingly integrated with Italy’s broader ISR and electronic-effects architecture. The Air Force fields G550 CAEW (E-550A) with EL/W-2085 radar and is adding G550-based electronic-attack platforms under contracts with L3Harris and BAE Systems, reinforcing the C2/ISR fabric that an M3A would plug into for cueing and coordinated targeting.
The timing also aligns with NATO’s renewed maritime strategy and expanding focus on protecting critical undersea infrastructure, pipelines, interconnectors and data cables, where persistent patrol and rapid cueing matter as much as torpedo-on-target performance. By adding six M3A with modern sensors, acoustic processing and multi-INT payloads, Italy would strengthen alliance surveillance of sea lines of communication and underwater assets, complementing Operation Sea Guardian and NATO’s new institutions focused on safeguarding subsea infrastructure. Recent developments underscore the need for resilient Med-centric capacity. NATO has highlighted the vulnerability of critical underwater infrastructure and stood up dedicated coordination mechanisms, while HALE ISR from Sigonella is already equipped with “maritime mode” to widen the recognized maritime picture. An Italian M3A would convert indications from these networks into rapid localization, classification and, where mandated, weaponized effect.
In operational terms for NATO, an Italian six-aircraft fleet sized for high availability would enable near-continuous presence over priority boxes around the Tyrrhenian-Ionian seam and the approaches to Suez. It would also strengthen allied ASW training pipelines, standardize MU90-class weapon employment, and expand Link-enabled multi-sensor fusion with CAEW/EW assets and AGS. In aggregate, this delivers faster cross-cueing to surface combatants and submarines, improved prosecution timelines against diesel-electric threats, and a higher level of deterrence against hybrid activities targeting undersea cables and energy infrastructure.
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The M3A decision carries industrial and alliance-management implications. It would deepen Italy’s role as NATO’s Mediterranean ISR hub, distribute maritime patrol burden more evenly across allies, and reduce strategic risk stemming from concentrating high-end MPA capacity in the North Atlantic. In doing so, Italy converts a known capability gap into a tangible contribution to NATO’s revised maritime posture and the security of Europe’s southern approaches.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.