Operational Structure of the Italian Army

See also: Italian Army
See also: List of active units of the Italian Army

The following list gives an overview of the entire chain of command and organization of the Italian Army for the year 2009 and includes all units currently active.[1]

Contents

Italian Army Command structure

The Armed Forces of Italy are under the command of the Italian Supreme Defense Council, presided over by the President of the Italian Republic. The Italian Army is commanded by the SME or "Stato Maggiore dell’Esercito" (Chief of the Army General Staff) in Rome. The Chief of staff has direct control of all support and logistics operations in Italy (i.e. military clinics, repair facilities, acquisitions,…), but no direct control of the operational forces, which are all assigned to and commanded by COMFOTER: "Comando delle Forze Operative Terrestri" (Command of Operational Land Forces).

COMFOTER

COMFOTER has direct command on a NATO rapid reaction Corps Command (NRDC-IT), of four support brigades (Artillery, Air Defense, Logistics, Engineering), as well as command of the Army Aviation, the Army Communication and Transmission command and of three commands called COMFOD 1, COMFOD 2 and COMALP, which between them command the actual 11 Italian combat Brigades. The attached units are in detail:

Order of Battle

Geographical Distribution

COMFOTER
COMFOD 1
4 Armored
32 Arm.
132 Arm.
132 Art.
10 Eng.
187 Para.
185° RAO
183 Para.
186 Para.
8 Engineer
121 AirDef
Railway Eng.
3 Cavalry
66 Infantry
11 Bers.
5 Av.
5 Cav.
5 Art.
7 Aviation
2 Cavalry
4 Cav.
Horse Artillery
3 Eng.
8 Alpini
COMFOD 2
131 Armored
8 Artillery
1 Bersaglieri
8 Bersaglieri
21 Engineer
3 Bersaglieri
19 Cavalry
151 Infantry
152 Infantry
5 Engineer
5 Infantry
24 Artillery
6 Cavalry
6 Bersaglieri
62 Infantry
4 Engineer
1 Granatieri
6 Pioneers
8 Cavalry
33 Artillery
7 Bersaglieri
9 Infantry
82 Infantry
21 Artillery
11 Engineer
Alpine Training
1 Cavalry
ParaTrain.
1 Aviation
2 Aviation
4 Aviation
52 Artillery
7 NBC Def
28 PsyOps
5 AirDef
4 AirDef
17 AirDef
2 Bridge Eng.
Unit Locations (Signal and Logistic units not included)

NRDC-IT

The NRDC or "NATO Rapid Deployable Corps" is located in Solbiate Olona and has a support brigade at its dependency, formed by:

COMALP

"Comando Truppe Alpine" (Alpine Troops Command) or COMALP has command over the Mountain Troops of the Italian Army, called Alpini (English: Alpines). It is located in Bolzano and consists of the following units:

COMFOD 1

"Comando Forze di Difesa 1" or COMFOD 1 resides in the north-eastern city of Vittorio Veneto (Veneto) and commands the most specialized brigades of the Italian Army:

COMFOD 2

"Comando Forze di Difesa 2" or COMFOD 2 resides in S. Giorgio a Cremano near Naples and commands 5 brigades. Three of those, the brigades "Aosta", "Pinerolo" and "Granatieri di Sardegna" are made up of one year volunteers and therefore intended for use mainly on Italian soil. The COMFOD 2 commands:

Signal and Information Command

"Comando Trasmissioni e ed Informazioni dell’Esercito" or CoTIE is the Italian Army's Signal and Information Command, it resides in Anzio (Lazio) and consists of the following units:

Army Aviation Command

The Army Aviation Command resides in Viterbo and includes the non combat flying formations of the Army (i.e. Transport Planes, support helicopters,…)

Support Command

The Support Command commands four of the Armys schools and four commands, which combine Schools and active units.

Air Defense Command

Air Defense Artillery Command in Sabaudia, with dual training and operational role

Field Artillery Command

Field Artillery Command in Bracciano (Lazio)

Engineer Command

Engineer Command in Rome (Lazio)

Logistic Projection Command

Logistics Command in Rome (Lazio)

Each Maneuver Logistics Regiment consists of a HQ company, a medical battalion, a maintenance battalion and a supply battalion. Each Transport Regiment consists of a HQ company, a transport battalion and a transport management battalion.

Support units

The following support units are not under the command of COMFOTER and their role is exclusively the support of units on Italian soil. They are commanded by various sub staffs of the SME- Army General Staff in Rome.

References

  1. ^ http://www.esercito.difesa.it/root/unita_sez/unita_unita.asp