The synergy between the Air Force and Leonardo continues
On Friday, October 27, 2023, at the Airspace Control Training Department, The opening ceremony of the new Command and Control (C2) system called “BlueShield”.
The ceremony was attended by military and civilian authorities, including Air Division General Alessandro De Lorenzo, Commander of the Air Division of Experimental Aeronautics and Space, the Brigadier General Igor Bruni, Head of the 4th Logistics Department of the Air Force General Staff, the Brigadier General Glauco Mora, Commander of the Airspace Control Brigade and the’Ing. Renzo Tosini, responsible for the Business Area of Land & Sea at the Electronics division Leonardo, the main Italian company in Aerospace, Defense and Security.
The “system”BlueShield”It was born from an agreement signed in February 2020 between the Air Force and Leonardo, with the aim of creating a command and control system for operations in the air. Air Defence, To be proposed to countries that are not members of the Atlantic Alliance. The demonstrator, owned by Leonardo and installed on the Pratica di Mare base – in an area that has been completely renovated –, will be used as a testing environment where the DAMI (Integrated Air-Missile Defense) instructor staff of the RACSA, together with the company’s technical and IT staff, will operate in a continuous process aimed at identifying the possible areas for improvement and development of the current prototype (gap analysis).
It Colonel Emidio Salmè, Commander of the RACSA, After briefly outlining the organization and tasks of the Department, he explained how it represents a center of excellence in the field of training and educating the personnel of the Armed Forces“ control and meteorological units.“This project – said Colonel Salmè – It further demonstrates the profound synergy existing between Forza Armata and the national industrial fabric. A relationship that is not reducible to the simple “supplier-customer” binomial, but is based on a modus operandi that aims to bring together the training and growth of technological and military capabilities, always at the service of the country.”.
Leonardo’s representatives expressed their deep appreciation for the achieved goal, highlighting how the company was able to develop such an ambitious project thanks to the Aeronautica Militare and the expertise of the instructors at RACSA.
It General Igor Bruni, At the conclusion of the previous interventions, he emphasized that this project is a valuable example of collaboration between the Defense and Industry sectors in a sector such as that of Air Defence and Command and Control, of great importance for national security.
The ceremony continued with the signing of the honor roll by the two authorities in the “Orione” Hall of the Department. Subsequently, after the traditional ribbon cutting, which inaugurated the BlueShield room, The guests participated in an operational demonstration of the system.
It RACSA It is the training agency of the Air Force that has the task of training the officers, non-commissioned officers and graduates of all the Armed Forces, including foreign ones, in the fields of Integrated Missile Air Defence, of Air Traffic And of the Meteorology, As well as providing training support to other entities outside the Department of Defence, such as the Department of Civil Protection and the National Fire Brigade Corps. Located at the Military Airport of Pratica di Mare (RM), the Department is dependent on the Airspace Control Brigade of the Air Operations Command in Poggio Renatico (FE).
