Cervia military airfield
Cervia “Urbano Mancini” military airfield |
|
---|---|
Characteristics | |
ICAO code | LIPC |
Coordinates | |
Height above MSL | 5 m (16 ft ) |
Transport links | |
Distance from the city center | 6 km southwest of Cervia |
Street | SP 32 |
train | Cervia and Cesenatico railway stations |
Local transport | bus |
Basic data | |
opening | 1955 |
operator | Aeronautica Militare |
Start-and runway | |
12/30 | 3050 m × 45 m asphalt |
The Cervia military airfield is located in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna , a few kilometers west of the Adriatic holiday resorts of Cervia and Cesenatico , near the village of Pisignano.
history
The Cervia military airfield was built in its present form in the 1950s. It was connected to the Northern Italy Pipeline System . Cervia initially only served as an advanced base until the Italian Air Force stationed a fighter-bomber squadron ( 8º Stormo ) here in 1967 . The squadron had only one flying squadron ( 101º Gruppo ) on F-84F Thunderstreak . In 1971 it was converted to the twin-engine Fiat G.91 Y, which was used in Cervia until 1994. With the decommissioning of these aircraft, the 8th squadron was disbanded and the 101st squadron relocated to Foggia-Amendola in southern Italy, where they received light fighter-bombers of the AMX type .
In March 1995 the 5th Squadron ( 5º Stormo ) moved from nearby Rimini-Miramare to Cervia. The two squadrons of this squadron had flown the F-104 Starfighter for a long time in Rimini , as interceptors with the 23º Gruppo and as fighter-bombers with the 102º Gruppo . The latter was also able to use US atomic bombs , which were stored at Rimini , as part of the nuclear participation . In the course of the relocation of the squadron, the 102º Gruppo came to Ghedi , where it was converted for the tornado , while the 23º Gruppo came to Cervia with the rest of the squadron. The Starfighter , which had been upgraded several times, was flown here until 2003. Then the military airfield was subjected to extensive modernization work in order to be able to accommodate the F-16ADF, which was leased as an interim solution until the Eurofighter Typhoon was introduced . These machines were used until the 23rd Fighter Squadron and the 5th Squadron were disbanded on October 5th, 2010.
In the wake of the introduction of the Eurofighter , the Italian Air Force decided to initially concentrate these new fighter aircraft on only two military airfields, in Gioia del Colle in southern Italy and in Grosseto in Tuscany , and later also in Trapani in Sicily . Several other airfields were selected as forward bases for the Eurofighters , including Cervia.
Todays use
In October 2010, the staff and parts of the 15º Stormo moved from the Pratica di Mare military airfield near Rome to Cervia. The 15th Squadron is a pure helicopter association whose main mission is Combat Search and Rescue . It also flies rescue missions on behalf of civilian agencies as part of air rescue in Italy . For these purposes, the squadron has airborne units at the bases Decimomannu , Trapani, Gioia del Colle, Pratica di Mare and Cervia (including the 23rd Squadron, which was reactivated as a helicopter unit in 2018). The 83rd SAR unit in Cervia was previously in Rimini.
The headquarters of the 1st Brigata Aerea has been in Cervia since September 2014, to which the 15th Squadron is subordinate to special and property protection associations .
photos
Web links
- Airport data on World Aero Data ( 2006 )
- Official website of the 15th Helicopter Squadron (Italian)
- Official website of the 1ª Brigata Aerea
- Pictures of the airfield on Airliners.net