Several rapid-firing 76 mm guns gave Italian warships a useful inherited answer to massed drones. Air-bursting shells could fill an incoming drone's path with fragments and complicate an attack by many cheap targets. The armament came from Mediterranean geography rather than a specific prediction about drones. Land-based aircraft and weapons can reach almost every operating area in the region, while the Adriatic and Aegean narrow the sea room further. Italian ships cannot move beyond that coastal air power while operating in home waters, so their designs have long emphasized dense aerial defence.
Notable Point · 43:55-46:14
Mediterranean geography drives layered drone defence
Italy's expectation of fighting within range of land-based aircraft and missiles helps explain its long commitment to multiple 76 mm defensive layers.