Piacenza military airfield
| Piacenza military airfield “Gaetano Mazza” |
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| Characteristics | |||
| ICAO code | LIMS | ||
| IATA code | QPZ | ||
| Coordinates | |||
| Height above MSL | 139 m (456 ft ) | ||
| Transport links | |||
| Distance from the city center | 15 km south of Piacenza | ||
| Street | SP 6 | ||
| Local transport | bus | ||
| Basic data | |||
| opening | March 28, 1938 | ||
| operator | Aeronautica Militare | ||
| Start-and runway | |||
| 12/30 | 2996 m × 45 m asphalt | ||
The Piacenza-San Damiano military airfield is located in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna , around 15 kilometers south of Piacenza , in the area of the municipality of San Giorgio Piacentino , near the town of San Damiano.
Infrastructure and use
The military airfield , located to the right of the Nure River at the foot of the Ligurian Apennines , has a runway of almost three kilometers (12/30). A taxiway running parallel to this can be used as an additional runway if necessary. The majority of the military installations are located south of the said runways, with parking areas and protected aircraft shelters for a squadron . The remaining facilities in the northwest were partly abandoned.
Piacenza-San Damiano has been a reserve airfield of the Italian Air Force since September 2016 .
history
The airfield was opened in 1938 and named after Gaetano Mazza, a military pilot who died on the Piave in 1917 . A bomber squadron was stationed in Piacenza-San Damiano until 1941. From 1942 to 1944 the German air force used the airfield (in May / June 1943 the I./Kampfgeschwader 1 and Kampfgeschwader 77 ) and expanded it. In May 1944 it was destroyed by Allied air raids and then poorly repaired. Shortly before the occupation by Allied ground troops, German units blew up the remaining facilities at the airfield.
Reconstruction by the Italian Air Force began in March 1952. In the following years the airfield was only used as an advanced base, from 1963 in particular by the 155th Fighter Bomber Squadron ( 155º Gruppo , F-84F ) of the 6th Squadron (6º Stormo) in Ghedi . In 1967 the 50th Squadron (50º Stormo) was established in Piacenza-San Damiano again, which completely took over the 155th Squadron and converted it to the F-104 Starfighter . In autumn 1973 the Italian Air Force disbanded the 50th squadron and relocated the 155th squadron first to Istrana ( 51º Stormo ) and later again to Ghedi.
With the introduction of the tornado in the 1980s, it was decided to station a maximum of one tornado squadron on Italian military airfields. This was to avoid a concentration of valuable combat aircraft at a few airfields and reduce the possibilities of successful enemy air attacks on these targets. On the basis of this planning, the Piacenza airfield was reactivated and modernized by the end of the decade. In the summer of 1990 the 50th squadron, which had been re-established here, received the 155th squadron from Ghedi, which meanwhile flew the Tornado IDS. After recognizing a need for SEAD capacities and initiating the conversion of a number of tornadoes into the ECR version, the squadron was able to convert from 1998 and take on its new tasks.
Because of the war in the former Yugoslavia and the threat to the UN protection zone in Bosnia and Herzegovina , the German Air Force dispatched Einsatzgeschwader 1 to Piacenza in the summer of 1995 . It consisted of Tornado ECR and Recce-Tornado reconnaissance aircraft that flew over the former Yugoslavia from Piacenza until 2001 as part of various international missions.
In September 2016, the 50th squadron was disbanded and the 155th squadron with its Tornado ECR relocated to the 6th squadron in Ghedi. A military airfield command remains in San Damiano. Discussions about a possible civil use of the airfield have not led to any concrete results. Most recently, the mayors of the surrounding communities suggested using it by civil defense .