Amendola military airfield

Amendola “Luigi Rovelli” military airfield
Characteristics
ICAO code	LIBA
Coordinates	41 ° 32 '29 "  N , 15 ° 43' 5"  E Coordinates: 41 ° 32 '29 "  N , 15 ° 43' 5"  E
Height above MSL	56 m (184  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center	15 km northeast of Foggia
Street	SS 89 Garganica
train	Foggia – Manfredonia railway line
Local transport	bus
Basic data
opening	1941
operator	Aeronautica Militare
Start-and runway
11/29	2660 m × 45 m asphalt

The Amendola military airfield is located in the Italian region of Apulia , 15 kilometers northeast of the provincial capital Foggia , in the area of ​​the municipalities of San Giovanni Rotondo and Manfredonia , near the hamlet of Amendola. As Amendola is closer to Foggia than to Manfredonia, the airfield is also known as "Foggia-Amendola", in contrast to the civil airport Foggia .

use

The airfield is currently used by a squadron ( 32º Stormo ) of the Italian Air Force equipped with Lockheed Martin F-35 drones and multipurpose fighter jets . In addition, it is the location of a small airmobile fighter unit of the Carabinieri .

history

The Amendola military airfield was one of the so-called " Foggia Airfields " ( Foggia Airfield Complex ) during World War II . Some of these airfields were built on the vast plains of the Foggia province as early as the First World War . Until 1943 they served Italians and then Germans for military operations in the Balkans . In the summer of 1943, the airfields of Foggia and the city itself were of bombers of the Allies attacked, heavily damaged and shortly thereafter occupied by the ground forces. After repair and expansion work, the Allies flew attacks from here on targets in northern Italy, southern France, southern Germany, Austria and the Balkans. Amendola was one of the largest bomber bases of the United States Army Air Forces in Europe until 1945 . Your 15th Air Force in Bari was subordinate to the 2nd and 97th Bombardment Group on B-17 , the 321st Bombardment Group on B-25 and the 57th Fighter Group on P-47 , all of which were stationed in Amendola.

On February 1, 1947, the Italian Air Force took over the Amendola military airfield, which set up a flying school for jet pilots here in 1951. Initially, the De Havilland DH.100 Vampire was used for this purpose , and from 1953 the Lockheed T-33 . The night fighter and all-weather flight school set up at Foggia airport in 1951 with aircraft of the type De Havilland DH.113 Vampire NF was taken over in 1954. In 1964 the flight school in Amendola received its first two-seater Fiat G.91 T, which was used here for over thirty years for advanced pilot training. In 1986 the training association in Amendola was named 60ª Brigata Aerea or “60. Luftbrigade ”, as the air force command also granted flight schools a squadron status. Squadrons with more than two flying squadrons and additional special units can be raised to brigade level in Italy . Because of its three flying squadrons and other training facilities, the school in Amendola received this brigade status.

The 32nd Squadron (32º Stormo) , which was re-established in Brindisi in 1967 and flew the twin-engine G.91Y, moved to Amendola in 1993 and took over the local, meanwhile reduced training association. By 1995 all G.91s were retired and replaced by more modern AMX . With these aircraft, the squadron took part in NATO missions over the former Yugoslavia in 1997 and 1999 . During the Kosovo war , Belgian and Dutch F-16s also operated from Amendola . In 2002 the Italian Air Force put its first Predator drones into service in Amendola, which were later used together with the AMX fighter planes in Afghanistan , among other places .

Because of the upcoming introduction of the Lockheed Martin F-35 in Amendola and the related preparations and reorganizations, one of the two AMX squadrons (13º Gruppo) previously stationed here was disbanded in December 2013 . The second AMX season (101º Gruppo OCU) moved to Istrana in July 2014 . The airfield was then modernized due to the upcoming introduction of the F-35. The first aircraft of this type arrived in Amendola at the end of 2016.

photos

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  Amendola Airfield 1944

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  Foggia Airfield Complex 1945

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  G.91T in Amendola

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  AMX in Amendola

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  32º Stormo coat of arms

Others

The Borgo Mezzanone military airfield near Orta Nova (sometimes also referred to as Borgo Incoronata airfield; location: ⊙ ; ICAO : LIBO ), around 15 kilometers south of Amendola, was used as a reserve airfield, fuel depot and ammunition depot during the Cold War and was under the control of the Amendola flight school. The airfield with the almost three kilometers long runway 10/28 is currently used as a refugee camp.

Remarks

1. ↑ The advanced pilot training in Amendola could be gradually abandoned because a more modern variant of the Aermacchi MB-339 , the 339CD, took over these tasks as lead-in fighter trainer in Lecce . In addition, a large number of Italian fighter pilots have been and are trained at Sheppard Air Force Base in the USA.
2. ↑ The Operational Conversion Unit (OCU) is the name given to flying squadrons in the NATO Air Force , which are used to retrain pilots. As a rule, these are new pilots who have completed their advanced training with jet trainers at flight schools and are then trained on their fighter aircraft. The training is called "operational retraining" and is largely carried out on two-seat versions of these combat aircraft.
3. ↑ Orta Nova-Borgo Mezzanone military airfield on forgottenairfields.com

Web links

Commons : Amendola Air Base  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Airport data on World Aero Data ( 2006 )
• Official website 32º Stormo (Italian)
• History of the Foggia airfields on forgottenairfields.com
• About use by the USA from 1943 to 1945 (English)