Aviazione Navale

Aviazione Navale
Lineup	August 1, 1956
Country	Italy
Type	Organization of the Marina Militare
insignia
Italian military aircraft cockade; (regular)
Execution of the cockade when used with camouflage colors
Badges on aircraft of the Navy

Aviazione Navale is the name commonly used today for naval aviators in the Italian Navy . The corresponding units and associations are subordinate to the Naval Aviation Command Comando delle Forze Aeree (COMFORAER) at the naval command in Santa Rosa near Rome .

The naval aviators use airfields near the three largest Italian naval bases La Spezia , Taranto and Augusta . The Navy currently has 16 AV-8B Harrier II combat aircraft for its two light aircraft carriers, as well as a larger number of helicopters that also operate from warships . In addition to submarine hunting , tasks such as supporting amphibious troops and special forces as well as combating piracy have gained in importance.

A special feature is that maritime reconnaissance aircraft belong to the Italian Air Force , but these aircraft are under the operational control of the fleet command and have mixed crews. For related coordination matters in the areas of training, logistics, maintenance and finances, there is an "inspectorate" (Marinavia) at the Admiralty staff , which is headed by an Air Force general.

history

AW101 of the Aviazione Navale

NH90 at the ILA 2012 in Berlin

Harrier takes off from Cavour

The Giuseppe Garibaldi (in the foreground) with the USS America during a maneuver in the Adriatic Sea

Until World War II

The first military pilot in Italy was the naval officer Mario Calderara . In 1910 he took over the management of the flight school at the Rome Centocelle military airfield . In the construction of aircraft, Calderara worked with the naval officer and later Air Force General Alessandro Guidoni , among others .

The aviation force of the Navy came into being under the name Servizio Aeronautico della Regia Marina on the basis of a ministerial decree of June 27, 1913. The year before, one had already started to carry seaplanes on battleships and cruisers . Since this generally proved to be of little practical use, because the aircraft first had to be launched or taken back on board when the ships were stopped, the cruiser Elba was converted into an aircraft mother ship in 1915 . Due to the insufficient capacity, such a conversion also took place on the merchant ship Quarto , which was put into service in 1915 as the aircraft mother ship Europa .

During the First World War , the Navy's air force was increased considerably. Their planes were used as fighters , bombers and scouts , both at sea and over land. In 1920 the air force received the name Forza Aerea della Regia Marina and its own troop flag including a silver medal of bravery for its services in the war.

From 1923 onwards, the air forces of the army and navy were largely taken over by the newly established Italian Air Force ( Regia Aeronautica ) , which laid claim to all flying military units. The army and navy were allowed to maintain their own specialized air force to a very limited extent until 1931, when they were subordinated to Air Force generals and from 1937 fully integrated into the Regia Aeronautica . The flying units and units for the direct support of the army and navy formed their own "auxiliary air forces" (Aviazione Ausiliaria per l'Esercito / per la Marina) , which were an integral part of the air force, but operationally assigned to the two other branches of the armed forces. The navy was allowed to deploy officers as observers on air force machines and thus also participate in operations management. In World War II , this concept is not proven. The lack of cooperation between the navy and the air force turned out to be one of the greatest shortcomings, as demonstrated , among other things, at Punta Stilo and Cape Teulada . It was realized too late that Italy could not do without an aircraft carrier during the war, especially not on the western and eastern ends of the Mediterranean .

After the Second World War

Even after the war, the clashes between the air force and the navy over the expansion of naval aviation continued. The Marina Militare sent personnel to the USA for pilot training in 1950. In 1952, the USS Midway transferred the first two Curtiss SB2C Helldivers of the Italian Navy to Naples, where they were landed on December 19 by their Italian pilots at Capodichino Airfield . Due to the still valid legal situation from the time of fascism , the Italian air force confiscated the machines and added them to their own 86th submarine squadron in Grottaglie . According to the plans of the Navy, “their” Helldiver should be used on a light aircraft carrier that the USA could buy second-hand. With the so-called “1,500 kilo law” of 1956, all fixed-wing aircraft above this weight limit remained in the hands of the air force, especially the maritime scouts , which were only left operationally to the command of the navy and ultimately had mixed crews. A separate inspectorate with the (already known) name Aviazione per la Marina ( Marinavia for short ) was set up for coordination and administration . The Aeronautica Militare procured initially 40 for the relays 86, 87 and 88 SB2C-5 Helldiver , which then in 1953 of 22 PV-2 Harpoon and 1957 by 45 S2-F1 Tracker were replaced. In the early 1970s, 18 Breguet Atlantic followed for the 41st squadron in Sigonella on Sicily and for the 30th in Cagliari-Elmas on Sardinia . For its part, the Navy began building the small aircraft carrier Garibaldi at the end of the 1970s , which was planned from the outset for the use of Harrier vertical take-offs, although the legal situation mentioned had not yet changed. Initially only used as a helicopter carrier, the Garibaldi created a fait accompli. With it, a change in the law was reached in 1989 that allowed the navy to procure combat aircraft for use on aircraft carriers. The situation with the maritime patrols remained unchanged.

The Luftwaffe did not raise any objections to the procurement of helicopters, not even heavy models, by the other two branches of the armed forces. The navy had already started testing this area in 1953. In July of that year, a helicopter landed on the modified deck of the cruiser Garibaldi for the first time . On August 1, 1956, the 1st helicopter squadron was set up in Terravecchia at the Augusta naval base , and with it the Italian naval aviators that still exist today. When it came to helicopters, the navy relied on license builds from Agusta right from the start . At first the AB 47 was procured in the versions G and J, whereby a part was equipped as a hunter with sonar , others as a killer with torpedoes . In the following, larger SH-34J , these two functions could be combined in one helicopter.

In 1963 the helicopter squadron moved from Augusta to the first real naval aviation base in Catania-Fontanarossa , where the second helicopter squadron was established the following year. October 31, 1964, a Saturday, is considered the "black day" of Italian naval aviators. A severe storm caused serious damage to the new base in Fontanarossa and to several aircraft of the Navy and the Air Force parked there, as well as trackers from the Dutch Navy that were there during an exercise. In the course of reconstruction, new AB 204 helicopters were also introduced from 1964 onwards.

Luni

Grottaglie

Fontanarossa

Navy airfields

In 1968 the 3rd helicopter squadron was built in Catania-Fontanarossa, equipped with the SH-3D Sea King , of which the Italian Navy received a total of 36. In 1968 the new Luni naval aviation base near La Spezia began operations, where the 5th helicopter squadron was set up, which initially flew the AB 204. In 1971, the 1st helicopter squadron finally moved with their new Sea Kings from Catania to La Spezia. At the same time, the testing of the small submarine helicopter Agusta A106 began , which turned out negative. 1976 began in Grottaglie near Taranto at the 4th helicopter squadron, the introduction of the AB 212ASW , of which the Navy ordered a total of 64. The AB 212 together with the 36 larger Sea Kings formed the helicopter fleet of the Italian naval aviation until the turn of the millennium. In addition, a total of 18 McDonnell Douglas AV-8s came from 1991 , which were stationed in Grottaglie and form a fighter squadron there. Shortly after the turn of the millennium, the Navy began to gradually replace the Sea Kings with new AgustaWestland AW101 helicopters. Because of the delays in the introduction of the new NH90 , the naval aviators had to use the AB 212ASW longer than planned. The anti-submarine electronics were expanded on Sea Kings as well as on several AB 212 to support the marines of the San Marco Regiment and the combat swimmers of COMSUBIN . The helicopters were also used in this form abroad, including in the mountains of Afghanistan or in the fight against piracy off the coast of Somalia .

The Atlantic maritime patrols , which belong to the Italian Air Force but are operationally managed by the Navy, have long looked in vain for a successor. The Boeing P-8 appeared as a maritime reconnaissance aircraft just like the Boeing 737 AEW & C as an early warning aircraft as an optimal solution from an operational point of view, but not from a financial point of view, which is why one ultimately had to do without both. As an emergency solution, a modified version of the ATR 72 was used .

organization

At the head of the naval aviators is a one-star admiral who heads both COMFORAER and the 6th department of the admiralty staff responsible for naval aviation. He is therefore responsible for both operational operations and planning and basic matters. As a COMFORAER, he is subordinate to three airfield commands and these in turn the six naval squadrons.

Airfield	Flying unit	equipment	annotation
Luni near La Spezia	1º Gruppo 5º Gruppo	AW101 AB212, NH90	Submarine hunt, support special forces, transport, SAR
Grottaglie near Taranto	4º Gruppo Grupaer	SH3D, AB212 AV-8B + Harrier II	Anti-submarine, amphibious operations, fighter-bombers
Catania-Fontanarossa near Augusta	2º Gruppo 3º Gruppo	AB212 AW101	Submarine hunting, transport, SAR
Pratica di Mare near Rome	Sezione Aerea	P.180	Connection tasks, maritime surveillance
Sigonella	88º Gruppo / 41º Stormo	ATR 72MP	Long-range sea reconnaissance in cooperation with the Air Force

The Centro Sperimentale Aeromarittimo , the flight test center for naval aviators, is also located in Luni .

The pilots of the Aviazione Navale are trained in the USA ( NAS Pensacola ).

Current equipment

Aircraft	origin	use	version	active	Ordered	Remarks
Planes
Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II	United States United States	Multipurpose fighter	F-35B		15th	Replaces the Harrier II
McDonnell Douglas AV-8 Harrier II	United States United States	Fighter bomber Trainer	AV-8B + TAV-8B	14th 1
Piaggio P. 180 Avanti	Italy Italy	Transport plane	P.180	3
helicopter
Agusta-bell 212	Italy Italy	Anti-submarine helicopter Transport helicopter	AB-212ASW AB-212NLA	37		Will be replaced by the NH90
AgustaWestland EH101	Italy Italy	Anti-submarine helicopter Transport helicopter Air surveillance	110-ASW 410-ASH / 413-TTH 112-AEW	10 8th 4th
NHIndustries NH90	Italy Italy	Anti-submarine and transport helicopters	NTH MID	23 1	23 9

Web links

Commons : Aviazione Navale - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

↑ On July 13, 1940, a few days after Punta Stilo, the Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano wrote in his diary: “The real polemic in the field of naval warfare is not that between us and the British, but between the Air Force and the Navy. Admiral Cavagnari claims that air support was completely absent in the first phase of the battle. When it finally came, it was aimed at our own ships, which were bombarded by SM.79 for six hours . ”Ciano, Galeazzo: Diaries, 1939-1943. Scherz Verlag , Bern 1946.

↑ In addition to the original 64, three or four more were added later. The AB 47 were handed over to the Carabinieri , the AB 204 to the Italian fire brigade .

↑ The Italian term Gruppo is generally translated as Staffel or English Squadron , which is true in substance, because flying groups in Italy in all branches of the armed forces usually have 12 to 18 aircraft. In fact, gruppi are battalion-level units , usually led by a lieutenant colonel or, in the navy, by a frigate captain . The reason for this is that you don't want to group up to 18 aircraft in units at company level (squadron). Reference is often made to artillery , where in almost all armies in the world six guns can form a battery (equivalent to a squadron or company) and three batteries can form a battalion (or division).

↑ Italian military aircraft have a uniform military aircraft registration number across the armed forces , which begins with the abbreviation MM, which stands for Matricola Militare or military register . This is followed by a number that the aircraft usually keep during their entire service life. The individual armed forces add their own identifiers. In the Air Force, these are based on the squadron and can therefore change. In the case of the Navy, on the other hand, the identifiers depend on the aircraft type. The first digit indicates the type, followed by a dash, then the number of the aircraft of this type. Currently the 1 stands for the Harrier (formerly for AB47G; planned for Helldiver ), the 2 for the AW101 (formerly AB47J), the 3 for the NH90 (AB204), the 4 for the F-35B (4 SH-34 Seabat ) , the 5 for the Camcopter (A106), the 6 for the SH-3D Sea King and the 7 for the AB212 (from 8 Coast Guard ). In the case of the aircraft number following the dash, number 17 is not assigned for reasons of superstition . This explains, for example, why the IDs for the Harriern range up to 1–19, although only 18 machines were purchased.

↑ Italy receives its first NH90 MITT. Flug Revue , July 22, 2017, accessed February 23, 2017 .

[1] On July 13, 1940, a few days after Punta Stilo, the Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano wrote in his diary: “The real polemic in the field of naval warfare is not that between us and the British, but between the Air Force and the Navy. Admiral Cavagnari claims that air support was completely absent in the first phase of the battle. When it finally came, it was aimed at our own ships, which were bombarded by SM.79 for six hours . ”Ciano, Galeazzo: Diaries, 1939-1943. Scherz Verlag , Bern 1946.

[2] In addition to the original 64, three or four more were added later. The AB 47 were handed over to the Carabinieri , the AB 204 to the Italian fire brigade .

[3] The Italian term Gruppo is generally translated as Staffel or English Squadron , which is true in substance, because flying groups in Italy in all branches of the armed forces usually have 12 to 18 aircraft. In fact, gruppi are battalion-level units , usually led by a lieutenant colonel or, in the navy, by a frigate captain . The reason for this is that you don't want to group up to 18 aircraft in units at company level (squadron). Reference is often made to artillery , where in almost all armies in the world six guns can form a battery (equivalent to a squadron or company) and three batteries can form a battalion (or division).