The aim of intermarine effort was the development of a practical and remunerative utilisation of GRP in those sectors of the naval industry where only wood, steel and fight alloys had been used so far.

An important result of these studies was, in a few years, the development of new resins formulation and new kind of glass fibres especially suitable for the construction of large vessels. A first application of the newly developed materials became a reality in mid 1970's, when the Italian Navy issued a requirement for an innovative Mine Countermeasure Vessel, to replace the existing fleet of wooden minesweepers.

intermarine considered that the GRP, being:

· non-magnetic by nature,

· corrosion and maintenance free,

· structurally light but at the same time very resistant,

· with excellent characteristics of flexibility

A significant effort was made for developing an innovative structural design capable of achieving the maximum benefit of the intrinsic properties of the GRP composite, mainly the elasticity and flexibility, instead of reproducing a copy of traditional steel or wood ship's structures.

So intermarine, having focused its attention on the dynamic analysis of underwater explosion phenomena of non-contact mines, rejected various traditional structural solutions and developed a new concept of hull construction.

The main hull girder became fundamentally, in intermarine design, a single-skin monocoque structure without any longitudinal or transverse reinforcement other than main decks and main bulkheads, whose strength had to be achieved through a significant increase of the skin thickness. The hull built in this way was expected to be flexible enough for elastically flexing, without breaking, under the heavy load caused by the close underwater explosion.

Moreover intermarine developed other innovative technical solutions, such as installation of main engines and auxiliaries on suspended cradles and the particular structure of the liquid tanks, fixed between two bulkheads.

This choice of keeping the hull free from any contact with installed equipment, together with the absence of rigid reinforcements, allow to completely exploit the intrinsic characteristics of the elasticity of the GRP, minimising the acoustic signature and maximising the shock resistance.

intermarine implemented its concept building a portion of ship, fully representative of the new minehunter's structure, that the Italian Navy submitted to severe and repeated underwater explosions, with excellent results: a few years later, in 1985, the Italian Navy commissioned four "Lerici" class minehunters.

From then on the design and construction of GRP minehunters has been the intermarine core business, and materials and technologies have been continuously refined and improved, keeping intermarine on the leading edge of the mine countermeasure market.