Decimomannu, 31 March 2023
over 1500 people, a real crowd responded with passion to the opening of the Decimomannu Base to the public for the 100th birthday of the Arma Azzurra. Families, curious and many children took the opportunity to experience first-hand the work of the personnel of the Department who work daily at the service of the community.
Numerous stands organized inside the military airport, from meteorology to the fire service and "Fire Rescue" with a static display of the vehicles, from the health service to the air rescue service, by the local "Force Protection", to telecommunications technicians, Radar, of the Airspace Control which manages commercial traffic, civil and military of Southern Sardinia as well as the technical part of flight training. Many young boys have had the opportunity, through special "info-points", to receive useful information regarding the competitions and enlistments of the Air Force. There were stands of modeling associations and aviation enthusiasts, the Associazione Arma Aeronautica as well as charities such as the AIRC, who joins the Armed Forces in the project "A gift from heaven".
The aircraft are the absolute protagonists; in fact, the HH-139-A/B helicopter and the T-346 "Jet Trainers" are on display, trainer aircraft with the most advanced technology in the world. The aircraft carried out their daily flight activity, arousing the enthusiasm of the visitors.
The Exhibition Hall of the Base is also open to the public and visited with particular interest, which preserves the historical memory of the Department and of the Air Force in the area with a large photographic repertoire, of memorabilia and models of various kinds.
The day began in the morning with the solemn raising of the flag in the presence of the President of the RAS Christian Solinas, of the Commander of the P.I.S.Q. e del C.A.M.R.A.S. Gen. B.A. Davide Marzinotto and the highest regional political authorities, ecclesiastical and military. Several school groups from the municipalities of Villasor were present at the event, Decimomannu, Decimoputzu and San Sperate.
The Commander of the R.S.S.T.A., Colonel Federico Pellegrini, he said he was pleased and gratified by all the efforts made to organize a large-scale event with such a response from the public. The Commander had the opportunity to have his office visited, which holds the institutional flag of the Department, to different groups of people, taking the opportunity to thank for the passion and participation shown and underlining the satisfaction for having had the opportunity to illustrate directly to the audience the many daily activities carried out by the women and men of the R.S.S.T.A. Decimomannu.
The Experimental and Standardization Department of Aerial Shooting in Decimomannu guarantees logistic-operational support to the International Flight Training School (I.F.T.S.), to the Flight Departments of the Air Force, of the other Armed Forces. and the allied countries. The Base is located in Sardinia at approx 20 km from the city of Cagliari and, thanks to the favorable climatic conditions, the availability of large free air spaces, as well as the presence of huge logistic infrastructures, it is counted as the ideal place for aerial training. The airport, one of a kind, it is capable of accommodating and supporting numerous aerotactic aircraft simultaneously, transport and helicopters, having runways and parking areas suitable for even the largest aircraft such as the Antonov AN-124 and the Galaxy C-5.
The technological equipment of the Department includes the modern AACMI system (Autonomous Air Combat Manoeuvering Instrumentation), a sophisticated electronic device that uses GPS technology, allows flight crews to train for complex missions in absolute safety and without the use of any type of armament, allowing real-time operations monitoring or mission rehearsal for crew debriefing.
The constant technical updates of the Decimomannu base have allowed the development and use of important cutting-edge technologies. From its establishment to today, prototypes of important aircraft such as the Tornado were tested at the RSSTA, l’Eurofighter, the T-346 and the F-35, projecting the base into the world of 5th generation systems
Sources
Text: Air Force – Air Shooting Experimental and Standardization Department – Institutional Communication Section
Photo: Air force
