Sigonella military airfield

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sigonella military airfield Naval Air Station Sigonella Base aerea di Sigonella
Ensign of the 41º Stormo Antisome of the Italian Air Force.svg Nascsm.gif

US Navy 060823-N-3013W-003 Aviation Ordnanceman 3rd Class Giancarlo Rosasarias of Los Angeles, Calif., Directs the taxi pilot to straighten his direction of movement in order to properly park a P-3C Orion, after returning from.jpg
Characteristics
ICAO code LICZ
IATA code NSY
Coordinates

37 ° 24 '6 "  N , 14 ° 55' 20"  E Coordinates: 37 ° 24 '6 "  N , 14 ° 55' 20"  E

Height above MSL 24 m (79  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center 16 km west of Catania
Street State Road 417
Basic data
opening 1959
operator Aeronautica Militare, US Navy
Runways
10R / 28L 2462 m × 45 m asphalt
10L / 28R 2442 m × 30 m asphalt

i1 i3


i7 i10 i12 i14

The Sigonella military airfield is located about 16 km southwest of Catania , Sicily , in the area of ​​the municipality of Lentini , near the hamlet of Sigonella. The military airfield houses a base of the US Navy (NAS Sigonella, The Hub of the Med ), a base of the Italian air force ( 41º Stormo , maritime reconnaissance) and is the main base of the NATO - Alliance Ground Surveillance .

Naval Air Station Sigonella

Satcom Naval Air Station Sigonella 1987

The American part of the airfield located in the north-west comprises two facilities: In the somewhat secluded area NAS I there are staff and administration buildings, schools, a hospital , a radio station and part of the accommodation for soldiers and their families. In addition, there are two other settlements some distance away ( Mineo and Marinai ) with associated social facilities. NAS II forms the actual military base . Due to its strategically very favorable location in the central Mediterranean, it not only serves the 6th US fleet as an important naval aviation base , but also the entire US armed forces as a transport and logistics hub for operations in the Near and Middle East and the Indian Ocean. In addition to the US Navy's P-3C Orion , the airfield is mainly used by US Air Force transport aircraft. The Defense Logistics Agency maintains a depot in NAS II, which is the largest US supply center in the Mediterranean after Camp Darby . There are more than 40 other US military facilities in and around Sigonella, where a total of about 4,000 American soldiers live with their relatives.

The NCTS Sicily , which is responsible for communication, also works from the NAS II . She operates u. a. a transmitter for submarine communication near Niscemi on the Sicilian coast.

41º Stormo

In the northeast is the Italian part of the military airfield. The Italian Air Force maintains a Maritime Reconnaissance Squadron ( 41º Stormo ) there, which is equipped with P-72A aircraft, but which are under the operational control of the Italian Navy and have mixed crews. This association also includes a maintenance and training center. Until the end of 2015, the military part of Cagliari airport served as an advanced base for the squadron , on which another Italian maritime reconnaissance unit (30º Stormo) was located, whose Breguet Atlantic relocated to Sigonella in 2002 and there until September 2017 together with the Atlantic of the 41st squadron were gradually decommissioned.

In July 2017, the 61º Gruppo with MQ-1C Predator drones was set up in Sigonella . This is the third flying season of the 32º Stormo based on the Amendola military airfield in Apulia . The 32nd Squadron had been using Sigonella since 2011 as an advanced base for missions in the central Mediterranean region and over Libya . The 41st Squadron supports the 61º Gruppo in Sigonella in various ways.

In May 2017 an airmobile fighter unit of the Carabinieri (Squadrone Carabinieri Eliportato “Cacciatori di Sicilia”) was set up on the Italian part of the Sigonella military airfield . It is equipped, among other things, with a few helicopters and, if necessary, is also supported by the 41st Squadron.

Alliance Ground Surveillance

The NATO built on the Naval Air Station Sigonella, the Main Operating Base for their reconnaissance system Alliance Ground Surveillance . It is based on the Global Hawk drone . The first concrete step towards the realization of this project took place in February 2009 and after more than 10 years the first RQ-4D arrived in Sicily in November 2019.

history

Sigonella military airfield at the foot of Mount Etna

During the Second World War , the Sigonella field airfield was laid out in early 1942 , and under the name “Satellite 3”, it was under the Gerbini military airfield command. After the war, the Gerbini airfields were abandoned.

When it became apparent in the early 1950s that further expansion of the US facilities in Ħal-Far on Malta would not be possible, the US Navy and NATO turned to Italy with a request to set up a naval air base in Sicily. In the summer of 1957, the Italian government made land available in the Catania plain, around 15 kilometers southwest of Fontanarossa Airport . Two years later, flight operations could be resumed in Sigonella. In mid-1959, a flood wave damaged several facilities at the base. Flight operations had to be relocated to Fontanarossa for a short time. There was an Italian reconnaissance unit on S-2 Tracker , which moved to Sigonella a little later. For the commissioning of the Atlantic maritime patrols in 1972, the Italian part of the Sigonella airfield was expanded, which then housed the entire 41st squadron of the Italian air force.

In 1985, after the kidnapping of Achille Lauro, Sigonella had a critical confrontation between members of an American special unit on the one hand and soldiers of the Italian air force and the Carabinieri on the other. Both sides intended to arrest the hijackers who had been forced to land on the base by US fighter planes. The situation only eased after more than five hours when the US unit withdrew.

Floods in Marinai, 2005

In December 2005 the base was affected by another tidal wave. Corresponding structural security measures subsequently prevented further incidents of this type.

On November 5, 2012, Sigonella took over commercial air traffic from Catania-Fontanarossa for four weeks , as the runway there had to be renewed.

In 2011 the US Air Force applied for US $ 15 million to build a communications center similar to Ramstein Air Base on Sigonella , but the plans were not implemented until November 2014.

See also

Web links

Commons : Sigonella Air Base  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Aeronautica Militare: ricostituito a Sigonella il 61 ° Gruppo Volo con i Predator. aviation-report.it July 11, 2017
  2. nascono i "Cacciatori di Sicilia": lo Squadrone Carabinieri ha sede a Sigonella. carabinieri.it May 13, 2017
  3. Information on the NATO AGS project
  4. NATO receives first AGS Global Hawk, Janes, November 22, 2019
  5. Henry L. deZeng IV: Air Force Airfields 1935-45 Italy, Sicily and Sardinia , S. 99f
  6. Jeremy Scahill: Germany is the Tell-Tale Heart of America's Drone War . In: The Intercept . April 17, 2015. Retrieved April 18, 2015.