The Ariete-class torpedo boats were a group of destroyer escorts built for the Italian Navy during World War II.

They were enlarged versions of the Spica-class torpedo boats and designed to escort convoys to North Africa.

Of the 42 units planned, sixteen ships were eventually ordered but only one was completed by the time of the armistice, Ariete, built in the Sestri Ponente shipyards and commissioned on 5 August 1943.

Most of the other ships were captured and completed by the Germans, entered service with the Kriegsmarine as Torpedoboot Ausland and eventually sunk in the course of operations across the Aegean and the Adriatic.

Fionda (renamed TA46 by the Germans) was sunk in Fiume by an Allied bomber on 20 February 1945, together with her twin Balestra / TA47.