The Cavour has a length of 235.6 meters (waterline length 215,6 meters), a standard displacement of 22,000 tons, and a full load of about 27,100 tons, with a hull and superstructure constructed entirely of FE510D steel. Like the US Tarawa and Wasp class amphibious assault ships, the Italian Cavour has a rectangular, all-access flight deck, with a rectangular island on the right side, which allows the ship to operate only short take-off/vertical landing (STOVL) fighters and rotary-wing aircraft, while the ski-jump deck (inclined at 12 degrees), which is used for take-off of the STOVL fighters, is located on the left side of the flight deck ahead of the ship. The Cavour has nine decks from the bottom to the flight deck*** and five decks on the bridge, with the bottom two decks of the hull being used for the main/auxiliary turbine installations, propulsion systems, ammunition stores, and troop-carrying living quarters.
The sixth deck from the bottom of the ship serves as the personnel accommodation and cargo hold; the seventh deck is a hangar in the center, surrounded by the crew's living quarters, recreation space, ammunition storage, bow anchor chain compartment, etc. The next floor under the flight deck is the CIC, the joint operations command room for amphibious operations, the officer's area and the warehouse, etc. The entire ship is divided into seven independent decks. The ship is divided into seven independent damage control areas, each of which is controlled by a damage control center and equipped with advanced fire-fighting and disaster prevention facilities. When the ship is used for amphibious transportation, the lower deck hangar is used as a storage room for vehicles, which can carry 24 main battle tanks, or 60 armored personnel carriers, or 100 general wheeled vehicles; in order to match this special function, the ship is also equipped with vehicle entry/exit hopper compartments on the side and aft, which is a Roll on/Roll in RORO design generally seen in dockyard landing ships. This Roll on/Roll in RORO design is generally found on dockyard ships. The lanes inside the ship allow vehicles to travel directly to the flight deck, significantly increasing the number of vehicles that can be loaded. Initially, the Italian Navy even considered putting the same inboard docking bay as the Dock Landing Ship on this ship, which could accommodate four LCM-6 landing craft or two LCM-8 landing craft or one LCAC air cushion landing craft, but this was eventually dropped before the design was finalized in 2000.
Cavour's side also carries a number of small craft, including three LCVP personnel landing craft, a reconnaissance boat, two high-speed assault boats, and more, capable of serving as maritime patrols, proctors, or special missions. To support amphibious operations, the ship has an onboard hospital of 430 square meters, which can accommodate a wide range of medical equipment, and the Cavour has a total **** capacity of more than 1,200 personnel, and the ship's staffing, in addition to a crew of 450 and a command/aviation staff of 356, is capable of carrying amphibious landing forces of 360 personnel at normal times, which can be increased to 450 if necessary, with room for an additional 90 personnel. The ship's life-support facilities can provide 150 tons of fresh water per day, and the ship's emergency power supply can handle 1,000 people crammed aboard. Cavour's most important air defense equipment is the SAAM/I short-range air defense missile system developed by France and Italy in the 1990s, consisting of the EMPAR phased-array radar developed by Italy's Alenia, and Aster missiles fired from the Sylver vertical launch system, with the ship's total **** equipment consisting of four sets of eight Sylver A-43 vertical launchers set up on the left end of the flight deck. The EMPAR operates on the G/C frequency, with a hemispherical antenna shield, and has a maximum detection range of about 180km. It can simultaneously detect 300 targets, track 50 of them, and simultaneously guide 24 Aster-15 missiles to engage 12 of the most threatening targets.
The Aster-15 short-range air defense missile, a new air defense weapon developed in the 1990s in cooperation with several European countries, is guided by a terminal active radar and has a vectoring nozzle, making it flexible enough to intercept supersonic sea-skimming anti-ship missiles. In addition to the SAAM/I, the ship's other armament includes three automated KBA 25mm anti-aircraft guns, linked by an electro-optical sensing system and positioned on both sides and at the stern, capable of firing at low-altitude or surface targets. In addition, Cavour is armed with two Otto-Melera 76mm guns of the Superfast type (120 rounds/minute rate of fire, one of which is placed on the bow of the ship), each guided by a set of NA-25X gun firing radar systems, and equipped with the new DART extended-range rounds for anti-aircraft and close-range anti-surface purposes.