Italian Armed Forces

The Italian Armed Forces encompass the Italian Army, the Italian Navy, the Italian Air Force and the Carabinieri. The President of the Italian Republic heads the armed forces as the President of the Supreme Council of Defence. The total number of active military personnel in 2011 is 319,529 (including the national gendarmerie, but excluding Guardia di Finanza, a military corp under the authority of the Italian Ministry of Economy). Italy currently runs the ninth or tenth highest military budget in the world.

Italian Constitution

Article 11 of the Constitution of Italy says:

Article 52 says:

And part of article 87 says:

The four branches of Italian Armed Forces

The Italian Army (Esercito Italiano) is the ground defense force of the Italian Republic. It has recently (July 29, 2004) become a professional all-volunteer force of 115,687 active duty personnel. Its most famous combat vehicles are Dardo, Puma, Centauro and Ariete, and Mangusta attack helicopters, recently deployed in UN missions.

The Aeronautica Militare Italiana (AMI), the air force of Italy, was founded as an independent service arm on March 28, 1923, by King Vittorio Emanuele III as the Regia Aeronautica (which equates to "Royal Air Force"). After World War II, when Italy was made a republic by referendum, the Regia Aeronautica was given its current name. Today the Aeronautica Militare has a strength of 45,879 and operates 585 aircraft, including 219 combat jets and 114 helicopters. As a stopgap and as replacement for leased Tornado ADV interceptors, the AMI has leased 30 F-16A Block 15 ADF and four F-16B Block 10 Fighting Falcons, with an option for some more. The coming years also will see the introduction of 96 EF2000 Eurofighter Typhoons, replacing the leased F-16 Fighting Falcons. Furthermore updates are foreseen on the Tornado IDS/IDT and the AMX-fleet. The transport capacity will be improved with the delivery of twenty two C-130Js (for 2°Gr) and an upgrade programme for the C-130Hs. Also a completely new developed G222, called C-27J Spartan, has entered service replacing the G222's.

The Marina Militare, the Italian Navy, was created in 1946 as the Navy of the Italian Republic, from the Regia Marina. Today's Marina Militare is a modern navy with a strength of 35,261 and ships of every type, such as aircraft carriers, destroyers, modern frigates, submarines, amphibious ships and other smaller ships such as oceanographic research ships.

The Marina Militare is now equipping herself with a bigger aircraft carrier (the Cavour), new destroyers (Horizon class frigate Orizzonte class) and Luigi durand de La Penne, submarines (Todaro) and multipurpose frigates. In modern times, the Marina Militare, being a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), has taken part in many coalition peacekeeping operations. The Guardia Costiera is a component of the Marina Militare.

The Carabinieri are the gendarmerie and military police of Italy. At the Sea Islands Conference of the G8 in 2004, the Carabinieri were given the mandate to establish a Center of Excellence for Stability Police Units (CoESPU) to spearhead the development of training and doctrinal standards for civilian police units attached to international peacekeeping missions.^[4]

The Guardia di Finanza also functions as a specialized military police force and is a component of the Italian Armed Forces.

Sovereign Military Order of Malta

The Sovereign Military Order of Malta often offers medical or paramilitary support to Italian operations, mainly hospital trains.

NATO membership and UN missions

Italy has worked closely with the United States and others on such issues as NATO and UN operations as well as with assistance to Russia and the other CIS nations, Middle East peace process, multilateral talks, Somalia and Mozambique peacekeeping, and combating drug trafficking, trafficking in women and children, and terrorism.

Under long-standing bilateral agreements flowing from NATO membership, Italy hosts important U.S. military forces at Vicenza – home of 173d Airborne Brigade – and Livorno (USA); Aviano (USAF); and Sigonella, Nisida, and Gaeta – home port for the U.S. Navy Sixth Fleet. The United States has about 16,000 military personnel stationed in Italy. Italy hosts the NATO Defence College at Cecchignola, near Rome. Italy did take part in the 1990–91 Gulf War but solely through the deployment of eight Italian Air Force Panavia Tornado IDS bomber jets to Saudi Arabia; Italian Army troops were subsequently deployed to assist Kurdish refugees in northern Iraq following the conflict.

As part of Operation Enduring Freedom in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks, Italy contributed to the international operation in Afghanistan. Italian forces have contributed to ISAF, the NATO force in Afghanistan, and a Provincial reconstruction team and five Italian soldiers have died under ISAF. Italy has sent 411 troops, based on one infantry company from the 2nd Alpini Regiment tasked to protect the ISAF HQ, one engineer company, one NBC platoon, one logistic unit, as well as liaison and staff elements integrated into the operation chain of command. Italian forces also command a multinational engineer task force and have deployed a platoon of Italian military police. Three AB 212 helicopters also were deployed to Kabul and four Tornado.

The Italian Army did not take part in combat operations of the 2003 Second Gulf War, dispatching troops only after May 1, 2003 – when major combat operations were declared over by the U.S. President George W. Bush. Subsequently Italian troops arrived in the late summer of 2003, and began patrolling Nasiriyah and the surrounding area. On 26 May 2006, Italian foreign minister Massimo D'Alema announced that the Italian forces would be reduced to 1,600 by June; Italian participation in the military operations in Iraq was concluded by the end of 2006, with full withdrawal of Italian military personnel except for a small group of about 30 soldiers engaged in providing security for the Italian embassy in Baghdad, and about 87 soldiers stationing in bases in the Persian Gulf (but not in Iraqi territory). As of June 2006 32 Italian troops have been killed in Iraq – with the greatest single loss of life coming on November 12, 2003 – a suicide car bombing of the Italian Carabinieri Corps HQ left a dozen Carabinieri, five Army soldiers, two Italian civilians, and eight Iraqi civilians dead.

Operations

Since the second post-war the Italian armed force has become more and more engaged in international peace support operations, mainly under the auspices of the United Nations. The Italian armed forces are currently participating in 24 missions that take place in 18 countries over three continents^[5]:

•  United Nations
  • UNTSO, from 1958 (Israel, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon) – 8 out of 142 soldiers from 23 countries
  • UNMOGIP, from 1951 (India and Pakistan) – 7 out of 44 soldiers from 8 countries
  • UNIFIL, from 1978 (Lebanon) – 2,410 out of 12,800 soldiers from 30 countries
  • MINURSO, from 1991 (Western Sahara) – 5 out of 915 soldiers from 14 countries
  • UNFICYP, from 2005 (Cyprus) – 4 out of 915 soldiers from 14 countries
  • UNAMID, from 2008 (Sudan) – 1 officer out of 19,000 soldiers from 53 countries
  • KFOR, from 1999 (Kosovo) – 1,596 out of 12,990 soldiers from 32 countries
  • ISAF, from 2001 (Afghanistan) – 3,815 out of 132,203 soldiers from 40 countries^[6]
  • EUFOR, from 2004 (Bosnia and Herzegovina) – 260 out of 2,150 soldiers from 25 countries
•  European Union
  • EUPM, from 2003 (Bosnia and Herzegovina) – 13 out of 190 soldiers from 33 countries
  • EUPOL RD Congo, from 2007 (Democratic Republic of the Congo) – 4 out of 49 soldiers from 10 countries
  • EUBAM Rafah, from 2005 (Rafah Border Crossing) – 2 out of 22 soldiers from 9 countries
  • EUMM Georgia, from 2008 (Georgia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia) – 21 out of 320 soldiers from 26 countries
  • Operation Atalanta, from 2008 (Gulf of Aden) – 202 soldiers
•  NATO
  • Military accession and integration liaison – Tirana, from 2002 (Albania) – 2 out of 11 officers from 4 countries
  • NATO HQ – Skopjie, from 2002 (Macedonia) – 1 out of 12 officers from 7 countries
  • NATO HQ – Sarajevo, from 2004 (Bosnia and Herzegovina) – 20 out of 81 officers from 16 countries
  • NATO Training Mission – Iraq, from 2004 (Iraq) – 82 out of 169 soldiers from 15 countries
  • Operation Active Endeavour, from 2001 (Mediterranean and Strait of Gibraltar) – 220 soldiers
  • Operation Ocean Shield, from 2009 (Gulf of Aden) – 230 soldiers
  • Operation Unified Protector, from 2011
• Multinational force
  • MFO, from 1982 (Israel and Egypt) – 78 out of 1,700 soldiers from 11 countries
  • TIPH-2, from 1997 (West Bank) – 12 out of 37 soldiers from 6 countries
• International cooperation and technical assistance
  • Italian Delegation of Experts, from 1997 (Albania) – 28 soldiers
  • Italian Military Mission of Technical Assistance, from 1988 (Malta) – 36 soldiers

References

External links

• Italian rank insignia
• (Italian) Official Site of Italian Ministry of Defense
• (Italian) Official Site of Italian Army
• (Italian) Official Site of Italian Navy
• (Italian) Official Site of Italian Air Force
• (Italian) Official Site of Carabinieri

Esercito Italiano (Army)     
Marina Militare (Navy)     
Aeronautica Militare (Air Force)     
Carabinieri (Gendarmerie)