Nicola Lanza de Cristoforis

Nicola Lanza de Cristoforis (born August 19, 1960 in Milan ) is a general in the Italian Air Force . He took part as a pilot in the Second Gulf War and in operations in the former Yugoslavia , commanded, among other things, the Accademia Aeronautica officer's school and was deputy commander of the operational command of the Italian armed forces until the beginning of September 2019 . He has been the commander of the Armed Forces Special Forces Command since October 24, 2019 .

Military career

Lanza de Cristoforis was trained from 1979 to 1983 at the Accademia Aeronautica in Pozzuoli as an officer and also as a fighter pilot, including in Canada , and in Italy at the Amendola military airfield . This was followed by retraining to the Lockheed F-104 at the Grosseto military airfield and shortly thereafter to the Panavia Tornado at the British airfield RAF Cottesmore at the Tri-National Tornado Training Establishment (TTTE). He then flew tornadoes first in the 156th season in Gioia del Colle , southern Italy ; In 1990 and 1991 he participated with parts of this and parts of other Italian tornado seasons in Desert Shield and Desert Storm . In 1992 he was sent to the TTTE in Cottesmore as a flight instructor . In 1995 he was first head of the operations department in Ghedi, northern Italy, and then the 102nd squadron of the 6th squadron, also equipped with tornadoes, which was also involved in operations in the former Yugoslavia.

From 1998 to 2003 Lanza de Cristoforis held managerial positions at the Accademia Aeronautica and in the training command of the Italian Air Force. From 2003 to 2005 he commanded the 6th Squadron in Ghedi as a colonel , after which he served in the personnel department of the Air Force General Staff until 2013, which he also headed as brigadier general . From 2013 to 2015 he was in command of the combat units in Milan and also the territorial 1st Air Force region, most recently as major general . He then headed the Accademia Aeronautica in Pozzuoli from September 2015 to August 2017 . On August 9, 2017, he became deputy commander of the operational command of the Italian armed forces in Rome-Centocelle . When its commander, Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone , became Chief of Admiralty Staff on June 21, 2019, Lanza de Cristoforis took over the interim command of the operational command. On October 24, 2019, he took over the armed forces command for operations of the special forces in Rome-Centocelle from Major General Nicola Zanelli .

Lanza de Cristoforis completed general staff training at the (then) air warfare school in Florence in 1987 and 1988 and the general staff course at the military command academy in Rome in 1997 and 1998 . He completed other courses at the NATO School in Oberammergau (1987), the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey (2003) and at the Royal College for Defense Studies in London (2006). In 2012 he obtained a master's degree from the University of Naples Federico II , which is awarded in cooperation with the Accademia Aeronautica .

Others

Lanza de Cristoforis is married and has two sons.

Web links

• Curriculum vitae on the website of the Special Forces Command COFS (English)