Italian ship San Marco (L 9893)

San Marco (L 9893) is the second ship of the San Giorgio-class landing platform dock of the Italian Navy.

Development and design
The San Giorgio class of the Italian Navy, also known as the Santi class (since the three units that compose it have the names of three saints), consists of three amphibious warships of the landing platform dock (LPD) type: the ITALIAN SHIP San Giorgio, the ITALIAN SHIP San Marco and lastly, with a slightly different design, the ITALIAN SHIP San Giusto, specialized in landing operations that replaced the Grado and Caorle which were disarmed at the end of the 1980s. They are included in the Projection Force from the Sea, the amphibious component of the Italian Armed Forces.

Construction and career
San Marco was laid down on 26 March 1985 and launched on 10 October 1987 by Fincantieri at Riva Trigoso. She was commissioned on 14 May 1988.

Starting from December 1992 the ITALIAN SHIP San Giorgio, San Marco and the men of the San Marco Battalion took part in Somalia in the Ibis I and Ibis II missions with the 24th Naval Group together with ITALIAN CRUISER Vittorio Veneto, ITALIAN TANKER Vesuvius and ITALIAN FRIGATE Grecale and with the 25th Naval Group together with the ITALIAN AIRCRAFT CARRIER Giuseppe Garibaldi, the ITALIAN TANKER Stromboli and ITALIAN FRIGATE Scirocco.

In the summer of 2006, the Navy was one of the first to intervene in the Lebanon War. Participating in Operation Mimosa '06 and subsequently in Operation Leonte with the ITALIAN SHIP San Giusto, San Marco and San Giorgio in the front row together with ITALIAN FRIGATE Aliseo, ITALIAN DESTROYER Luigi Durand de la Penne and the aircraft carrier Giuseppe Garibaldi. The ships have landed, in the port of Beirut, under the control of the 1st San Marco Regiment, tons of material intended for the population, field kitchens, ambulances, generators for the production of electricity, pneumatic tents, tons of medicines and tons of food. food intended for the non-combatant civilian population made available by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Civil Protection, the Italian Red Cross and the United Nations World Food Program.

On 16 June 2016, San Marco, ITALIAN FRIGATE Bersagliere, ITALIAN PATROL BOAT Cigala Fulgosi, ITALIAN DESTROYER Andrea Doria, ITALIAN FRIGATE Carlo Margottini, ITALIAN SHIP Etna and Stromboli participated in the Flotta Verde exercise as part of the Great Green Fleet initiative. Operated alongside USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, USS San Jacinto (CG-56) and USS Roosevelt (DDG-80).