Nazario Sauro was the lead ship of her class of four destroyers built for the (Royal Italian Navy) in the 1920s. Completed in 1926, she served in World War II.
The Sauro-class destroyers were enlarged and improved versions of the preceding . They had an overall length of , a beam of and a mean draft of . They displaced at standard load, and at deep load. Their complement was 8âÂÂ10 officers and 146 enlisted men.
The Sauros were powered by two Parsons geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft using steam supplied by three Yarrow boilers. The turbines were rated at for a speed of in service, although Nazario Sauro reached a speed of from during her sea trials while lightly loaded. The ships carried enough fuel oil to give them a range of at a speed of .
Their main battery consisted of four guns in two twin-gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure. Anti-aircraft (AA) defense for the Sauro-class ships was provided by a pair of AA guns in single mounts amidships and a pair of machine guns. They were equipped with six torpedo tubes in two triple mounts amidships. The Sauros could also carry 52 mines.
Nazario Sauro was laid down by Odero-Terni-Orlando at their Genoa-Sestri Ponente shipyard on 9 February 1924, launched on 12 May 1926 and commissioned on 23 September 1926.