There were 17 submarines in this class, almost all named after places in Ethiopia which had been an Occupied by Italy since 1936, but only one, Alagi, survived World War II.

The Adua-class submarines were essentially repeats of the preceding Perla class design.

[1] For surface running, the boats were powered by two 600-brake-horsepower (447 kW) diesel engines, each driving one propeller shaft.

The light anti-aircraft armament consisted of one or two pairs of 13.2 mm (0.52 in) machine guns.

During the Spanish Civil War (1937–1938) five of the submarines already in service made seven special missions on behalf the Franco's regime without much success.