The Italian Fifth-Generation Airpower Enterprise: An Update from Italian Air Force Chief of Staff Lt. General Luca Goretti
12/02/2024
By Robbin Laird
On November 11, 2024, I was in Rome and meeting with the Air Force Chief of Staff. Lt. General Luca Goretti.
When I entered the building and walked to his office, the memory of my last visit to that office and with then COS Lt General Preziosa flooded into my mind.
My last visit was on September 29, 2015 which was third time I had the opportunity to meet with the Italian Chief of Staff, and to engage in a brisk dialogue on the way ahead for 21st century airpower.
The Italians had made the commitment to become a fifth generation Air Force and unique in Europe they were building a factory to assemble their own F-35s and with F-35 European partners.
So it was a return to a country where I had been engaged in the effort to support the Italian Air Force in its vision, but now NINE years later I was back to see the future efforts of 2015 in terms of the present of 2024.
I can frankly say that this story is dramatic and amazing and underscores that when the foundations for an enterprise are laid effectively, success will follow.
Italy now has the most advanced air force in Europe which has operated with global reach. Italy’s Cameri facility not only assembles more combat aircraft than any other European facility but is the home to heavy maintenance for multiple European air forces and now has the most advanced training facility in Europe for fifth generation airpower.
I watched with Ed Timperlake, the Italian first of flying from Italy to the United States in the midst of winter of 2016.
As I wrote with Ed Timperlake at the time: “On Feb. 5, the Italian Air Force’s first F-35, AL-1 with code “32-01” and markings of the 32 Stormo Wing landed at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, at the end of the JSF’s first ever transatlantic flight.
“The aircraft was piloted by “Ninja,” an Italian Air Force test pilot, belonging to the Reparto Sperimentale Volo (Test Wing) from Pratica di Mare, and who had successfully completed his initial F-35 flight training at Luke AFB in November 2015.
“To put this in perspective, the pilot had only 50 flight hours of F-35 flying experience.
“And the Lightning II which Ninja flew across the North Atlantic in winter had only 15 flight hours on before he took off on his historic flight. 32-01was the first plane to came off of the Italian assembly line at Cameri Italy.
“And this was done in the middle of winter, flying in and out of cloud layers over the turbulent North Atlantic against 120-knot headwinds. It was remarkable flying.”
Ed and I were two of the four outsiders there at Pax River. Not exactly a rush of interest. And from the lack of stories about the past nine years in Italy’s journey to shaping the most significant fifth generation enterprise in Europe is probably not surprising.
We have a lot of big talkers in the discussion about the future of European defense. The Italian Air Force and MoD and the current government certainly have a sense of the importance of creating actual capability for Europe’s defense.
It is a journey which the incoming Trump Administration might notice in its desires to see greater European defense capability – build industrial alliances and respect European sovereignty is not a bad formula for shaping a way ahead. It might be noted that the current Minister of Defence in Italy, earlier in his career, was a key player in ensuring that the Cameri facility became a successful reality.
Lt. General Goretti: “When we started our F-35 program, our focus was upon how we could build an effective enterprise which would significantly advance our capabilities. It was not a narrow approach on just buying a new platform. It was a new way of thinking. A new way of working that was required and provided us with an opportunity to shape something really new, dynamic and effective”
He then underscored that they did this in stages of building from the initial air wing and lessons learned and then applied them to the next and so on. And from the beginning, the F-35 was not viewed as a niche aircraft but a foundational element for rethinking the way ahead for Italian defence approaches.
When I was last there, there was a lot of tension among the services about the impact of the F-35, but the aircraft is a multi-domain flying combat system, and it is now having an impact on overall Italian defence thinking.
The recent engagement of the Italian Air Force and Navy with Australia is a case in point. Not only did the Air Force participate in the RAAF-led Pitch Black exercise, but the Italian Navy was engaged with its air wing as well operating off the Cavour. Indeed, what Pitch Black showed was the global reach of the Italian Air Force which Goretti discussed in some detail. For example, he noted that the Italian Air Force deployed to Japan with their F-35s while deploying other aircraft for exercises in the United States. They were the first to deploy F-35s to Iceland for air defence and to Estonia as the first F-35s to be deployed on the Russian border.
One source noted: “From August 6 to 8 2024, the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF, Koku Jieitai) and the Italian Air Force (ITAF, Aeronautica Militare) conducted their second consecutive bilateral exercise, dubbed Rising Sun 24, at Misawa Air Base in northern Japan.
“The training focused on enhancing tactical skills through the integration of advanced aircraft, including the JASDF’s F-35A and the ITAF’s F-35A, EF2000 Typhoon, G-550 CAEW and KC-767 tanker. In a further display of strengthened military cooperation, the United States Air Force (USAF) also participated in the exercise, contributing to the deepening of trilateral operational ties between Japan, Italy, and the U.S. The joint activities focused on interoperability between air units, with an emphasis on refining strategic capabilities in aerial combat and refueling operations.”
In addition to the Italian Air Force’s operational development, the Cameri facility is assembling F-35s in Europe for Italy and several European partners. And the facility is operating as a significant maintenance facility as well for allied air forces.
We then moved to the third pillar of the Italian fifth generation enterprise – the first being operational capability and the second the Cameri sustainment capability – the creation of fifth generation airpower capability. In 2022, the Italians established a new training facility in Sardinia, the International Flight Training School (IFTS). This facility has been created from the ground up for the Italians and the allies who are coming to the new facility to train together in shaping new ways to operate in a multi-domain environment.
As Lt. General Goretti put it: “The attitude of a modern air force is to look around, see the change in of the geopolitical situation, consider what you have in your inventory, and then try to think and reconsider the way of training to maximize your mission success. To follow this path, we saw the necessity of building a new kind of training facility.
“We decided upon working with our Italian company Leonardo, to establish a new international flight training school. After only 16 months from concept to execution, we held our first class at the new training facility. We have more than 13 allied air forces already engaged in our program. This is a significant achievement which we have been able to do in only two years since the flight school opened in 2022.”
We concluded by looking back at the journey since 2015. As Lt. General Goretti eloquently underscored:
“You need to have a vision. You need to consider the opportunities and go for them despite the many, many issues that will be against you. We were lucky enough that our Air Force chiefs throughout this period were committed to the journey. Now Cameri is an awesome place where you can easily see the commitment of a nation.
“And everybody who visits the FACO, they note what a huge program Italy has built. And the lesson learned is that if you are positive want to succeed on a key program and you have to fight in order to keep the program alive without any hesitation.”
Also, see the following:
Shaping a Way Ahead for the Networked Integrated Force: An Italian Air Force Perspective
Featured photo: Chief of Air Force, Air Marshal Stephen Chappell, DSC, CSC, OAM conducts a gift exchange with the Itatlian Air Force Chief of Staff, Lieutanant General Luca Goretti for bilateral engagements during Exercise Pitch Black 2024 in Darwin. Credit: Australian Department of Defence. July 30, 2024.
– (By arrangement with SLDinfo)
