ITS Anteo is the third Unit to bear this name in the Italian Navy. The ship’s design was developed by the “Ufficio Navi Speciali del Reparto Progetti Navi” (Special Office of the Ships Projects Division), according to the guidelines provided by the Navy General Staff. The Unit was built in the Cantiere Navale Breda di Porto Marghera and commissioned to the Italian Navy on July 31, 1980.
The first Unit (1914-1954), classified as a “submarine rescue ship,” was built in Holland, at the Smulders-Schedam shipyards and delivered to the Italian Navy on March 28, 1914. During World War I she was first assigned to the Taranto Department and then to the Rescue Operations Team. After the war was based at Taranto and then moved to La Spezia in 1926. During World War II, ITS Anteo carried out her task in La Spezia. She was sunk after the September 8 Armistice. After being restored at the La Spezia Shipyards, ITS Anteo resumed her task to rescue sunken hulls off La Spezia harbour and off other harbours in the North Tyrrhenian Sea. She was decommissioned in Taranto on May 19, 1954.

The second Unit (1962-1973), classified as “Support Ship”, was built in Pittsburgh (USA) for the U.S. Navy and given the name “Alameda County.” She was assigned to the Italian Navy on November 21, 1962 and condemned on August 1, 1973.

"Antaeus" is the name given to a giant of the Greek mythology, son of Neptune and Earth. He was 14 m. (39 ft) tall and used to challenge wayfarers to fights, smash them to death with his weight and collect their skulls, so that he might one day build a temple to his father Poseidon. Anteo was an invincible fighter as long as he remained in contact with the ground. He had a fight with Hercules who knocked him down three times, but in vain, as the earth, his mother, would infuse him with fresh strength, but Hercules, having realized the secret of his strength, clasped him between his arms and holding him above the ground, strangled him.

Therefore the name “Anteo” given to the Units is charged with a specific meaning related with the idea of strength and dedication to the sea.

The Crest of the Unit shows the giant Anteo in his relation both to the sea and to ground, the element which gave him strength. Anteo is blowing into a sea shell to warn about his presence. His body, half fish and half horse, is a reminder of his ability to move swiftly in the ocean and, at the same time, to be fast and powerful on the ground.