Staff from the Air Force participated in the event organised by the Defence Staff-Italian Military History Commission. The event, organised by the Defence Staff-Italian Military History Commission, took place through a substantial series of workshops on the theme: “Joint and multinational operations in Military History“.
The figures regarding participation were significant: forty delegations from various countries around the world and two hundred and fifty attendees, including delegates, their companions, and young researchers.
This was an initiative of wide international resonance that ensured a significant opportunity for “social diplomacy,” aimed at promoting fruitful cultural encounters and exchanges of experiences among the delegates.
The Air Force participated in activities with speakers who addressed various themes and in-depth discussions on topics of specific expertise.
Specifically, on Monday 2nd September, during the Italian military archives session, the Head of the Air Force Historical Office, Colonel Vittorio Cencini, as part of a session dedicated to military archives, presented the work carried out by his Office, established in 1926 with the aim of preserving and enhancing the Armed Force's historical heritage and memory.
During his presentation, Colonel Cencini specifically outlined the activities necessary for the care of an archive comprising approximately 12,000 storage units, equating to 1.3 km of linear shelving. This archive houses correspondence, booklets, registers, diaries, and historical memoirs, as well as photographic and cartographic material produced from 1908 to the present day. The collections within the archive span over a century of aviation history: the early days, followed by documentation, through numerous thematic areas, of fundamental moments in 20th-century military and national history. The archive has since been enhanced by over 40 private collections. Through the synergistic efforts of institutions and private individuals, documentary and photographic collections, along with memorabilia belonging to figures who shaped the history of the Air Force, have been entrusted to the Historical Office as their final resting place for preservation. This relationship of trust and collaboration with families is founded on the principles of simplification, transparency, and donor satisfaction. This has facilitated the rediscovery and study of material of inestimable historical value.
On Tuesday 3rd September, Inspector General Basilio Di Martino presented a paper on the theme “The Third Dimension of Trench Warfare. The Experience of the Italian Air Force on the Isonzo Front (1915-1917)”.
General Di Martino stressed how the military aircraft, in the years of the war, had gradually consolidated its importance as an indispensable element in the development of reconnaissance, observation and subsequently also bombing. He then proceeded to a careful description of the types of aircraft used during the years of the conflict. It was also highlighted how the use of aircraft developed from a situation where the doctrinal framework of the air components available to the different armies had not yet been defined. The development of criteria for the use of aircraft therefore originates from the long period of trench warfare, for which it was necessary to redefine the role and tasks of air means so that they would go beyond mere reconnaissance. Hence a doctrinal evolution that would lead the aircraft, in a few years, to receive a precise operational framework.
Friday 6th September, finally, Colonel Giancarlo Maragucci, Head of the “Joint Fires & Targeting” Division of the Joint Operations Command, spoke on the subject: “Aerospace Power within the scope of Operation Unified Protector“.
In 2011, the skies of Libya saw NATO and non-NATO countries engaged in an aerial campaign that did not include the presence of ground troops in the UN mandate itself. Aerospace technology was an essential element for the success of the operation, so much so that, on this occasion, “aerial” and “space” became a single entity.
During the presentation, Colonel Maragucci described the most significant events of the air campaign, examining the operational context and analysing the aerospace technology applied. Deep interest was aroused among those present. The debate also provided an opportunity for significant comparisons with past air campaigns, highlighting potential choices and decisions for future “aerospace power”.
