Monday 13th January, as part of the military space cooperation between the Italian Air Force and the UK Space Force, an American delegation from the prestigious West Space Seminar she paid a visit to Palazzo Aeronautica in Rome, headquarters of the Air Force Staff, and at the Air and Space Aeronautics Experimentation Division (DASAS) of Pratica di Mare (Rome).
It West Space Seminar it is a highly competitive training course of UK Space Force, structured in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), designed to prepare military leadership to tackle the challenges and capitalise on the opportunities of the space domain.
The visit to Italy is part of the programme Space Regional Security Studies (SRSS), a key element of the West Space Seminar curriculum, which includes an educational trip abroad to learn about the main space organisations of a partner country from a military, government and industrial perspective.
During the visit to Palazzo Aeronautica, the staff of the’General Office for Space of the Air Force Staff he presented an overview of the Italian military space sector, going into depth on capability development activities in the aerospace sector and existing international cooperation.
In the afternoon, the delegation was escorted to DASAS where the main testing activities in the aerospace domain were illustrated. In particular, the personnel of the Aerospace Engineering Group (GIAS) of the Flight Test Department (RSV) he demonstrated the ability to modelling and simulation in matters of Integrated Air and Missile Defence (IAMD) and presented the projects relating to the introduction of disruptive technologies in the field of Space Situational Awareness (SSA). An important contribution was finally made by Department of Aeronautical and Space Medicine (RMAS) which provided an overview of the microgravity experiments conducted during the Virtute-1 and Axiom-3 “Voluntas” space missions, in which the Italian Air Force has taken part in recent years.
Between Italy and the USA there is an established collaboration in the military space sector and this visit demonstrates the importance that the United States attaches to the partnership with our country. In addition to the Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) for access to the encrypted GPS service and for the exchange of SATCOM resources, the Italian Air Force receives valuable SSA data from its US partner, which are processed at the SSA Centre of the Aerospace Operations Command in Poggio Renatico (FE). Since 2017, the personnel of the’The Italian Air Force is taking part in the American exercise Global Sentinel and this year will participate for the first time in the Schriever Wargame, a US exercise open to selected partner nations. Finally, the Italian Air Force maintains permanent relations with its US counterparts through an Italian exchange officer at the U.S. Space Force Headquarters.
As a testament to the strong bond between Italy and the USA in the field of training, an Italian Air Force Officer has had the opportunity to participate in the ongoing West Space Seminar and is currently acquiring crucial skills that will foster the growth path of the Armed Force in the aerospace domain.
