ITS Magnaghi is the flagship of the Istituto Idrografico della Marina (the other survey vessels used by the IIM are: Aretusa and Galatea).

IIM flag survey ship is named after Admiral Giovan Battista Magnaghi (1839-1902), scientist and oceanographer as well as expert mariner, who was the first director of Istituto Idrografico della Marina.

It is not the first Navy vessel named after Admiral Magnaghi – the other served from 1918 to 1938 and took part in important hydro-oceanographic surveys in the Red Sea and in the Sicily Channel. It was dismantled in 1945.

The Magnaghi is the first survey vessel ever to be designed and built completely in Italy for the Italian Navy. Delivered to the Italian Navy in 1975, the Magnaghi has been in service for almost 40 years. It has been regularly modernized and constantly upgraded. It is fitted with single-beam echo sounders, 33 and 210 KHz, and 12, 38 and 200 KHz, multi-beam echo sounder (50 KHz), two side scan sonars (hull-mounted and towed), differential and RTK satellite positioning systems, geodimeter, portable tide gauge, XBT bathythermograph, CTD profiler with rosette system used for water sampling at different depths, one ROV with closed circuit TV system, one core barrel, current meters, Van Veen buckets and a weather station. The ship is equipped with suitable digital data logging and processing systems interfaced with oceanographic and hydrographic sensors.

The ship is equipped with three survey motor boats for coastal and shallow water surveys, fitted with single beam and multi-beam echo sounders, and with a harbour survey motor launch and two dinghies.

Her crest has at its centre Admiral Magnaghi’s face, from the picture hung in the Institute conference room, and the ship in the background; the ship’s name is along the bottom and the motto, "Nauta pro nautis" – “a sailor for sailors” - along the top.