Air Brigadier General Stefano Vito Salamida has succeeded Air Division General Alberto Rosso.
The ceremony was attended by the Heads of Departments and Offices from the palace entities and High Commands, representatives from the joint forces and industry areas, as well as personnel from the 4th Department. General Rosso, upon leaving the Department after just over two years, stressed the ever more essential synergy that the various Departments, Entities, High Commands and General Directorates must have amongst themselves to collectively achieve their objectives. He also expressed his satisfaction with the quality of work carried out by the personnel of the 4th Department. General Salamida thanked the leadership of the Armed Force for the trust placed in him by entrusting him with the role of Head of the 4th Department, and highlighted how competence and ethics characterise the 4th Department team, which succeeds in implementing programmes that make the Air Force operational, ably supported in close collaboration by the other players involved in this process. He also stated that the 4th Department is the core around which the conceptual activities for the acquisition and support of the means provided to the Armed Force are integrated. General Rosso will take up the role of Head of the 4th Department of the Defence Staff. General Stefano Vito Salamida was born in Galliate (Novara) on 8th July 1959.
He attended the Air Force Academy in Pozzuoli (Naples) as part of the “Vulcano III” course between 1979 and 1982, where he obtained his military pilot’s licence. He subsequently continued his training as an Air Defence pilot, first in Canada and then in the national air force units. In 1987, he took up the post of Commander of the 90th Squadron of the 36th Wing at Gioia del Colle (Ba) and, from 1994 to 1996, he was Commander of the 20th Group at Grosseto. Between 1996 and 1997, he attended the Advanced Course at the Air War College and the Joint Staff College. Subsequently, until 1999, he served as Flight Aide to the Under-Secretary of State for Defence. In 1998, he was promoted to Colonel and, from 1999 to 2002, was posted to the Italian Military Mission in Washington, D.C., where he served as Italian National Deputy in the Joint Strike Fighter Programme Office. On his return to Italy in 2002, he was appointed Commander of the 36th Wing at Gioia del Colle (Ba), which was then equipped with Tornado ADV and IDS aircraft. Returning to Rome in 2004, he served as Head of the Operations, Training and Exercises Office of the 3rd Department of the Air Force General Staff and, from 2005 to 2008, as Head of the newly established NEC Planning, Programming and Finance Office within the 6th Department of the Defence General Staff. From 2008 to 2009, he attended the Industrial College of the Armed Forces at the National Defence University in Washington DC, USA. In 2009, with the rank of Air Brigadier General, he took up the post of Director of the Joint Strike Fighter Programme at the 4th Department of the Defence General Secretariat. From 2011 to September 2013, he served as Head of the 6th Department for “Economic and Financial Affairs” at the Air Force General Staff. He is an Officer of the Italian Republic and has been awarded the Air Force Military Medal for Long-Distance Flight, the Mauritian Medal and the Meritorious Service Medal, awarded to him by the United States Department of Defence. He holds a Master’s degree in Aeronautical Sciences from the University of Naples Federico II and has logged more than 3,200 flying hours, the majority of which were on combat aircraft. General Salamida has two daughters.
