Italy Sends UAVs, Ships on Migrant Patrols

Eyes on High: Passengers rescued from a Maltese raft transfer from their Italian rescue boat. Italy is now using UAVs and patrol vessels to patrol the Mediterranean. 

 After flying its unarmed Predator and Reaper UAVs over Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, the Italian Air Force has now deployed its Reapers over civilian airspace in the Mediterranean to help rescue migrants attempting the perilous sea crossing from Africa.

The UAVs are part of Operation Mare Nostrum, a dragnet organized by the Air Force and Italian Navy that also involves helicopters and four Navy vessels, including the landing platform dock ship San Marco, which can scoop up migrant vessels in its floodable dock.

The operation was launched after huge losses of life in the Mediterranean as migrants pack onto rickety boats and attempt to reach Sicily or the Italian island of Lampedusa, which is 70 miles from the African coast — closer to Africa than the Italian mainland. Smugglers often send the migrants to sea in unstable, overcrowded vessels that run out of fuel.

On Oct. 3, a ship caught fire and capsized half a mile from the coast of Lampedusa. Of some 500 migrants aboard, mainly Eritreans escaping their country’s dictatorship, 364 died. A second vessel, this one packed with Syrians escaping their civil war, sank 60 miles from Lampedusa on Oct. 11. Dozens of bodies were recovered.

More than 8,000 migrants crossed to Italy and Malta in the first half of

this year, up from 4,500 in the same period of 2012, a surge attributed to rising instability in Africa and the Middle East. Recent weeks have seen another spike as migrants try to cross before winter weather makes sailing even tougher.

The deployment of Italy’s Reapers from their base at Amendola in southern Italy, and possibly from Sigonella air base in Sicily in the days to come, follows years of efforts to craft a legislative framework to allow UAV flights in airspace. Italy’s UAVs already have designated air corridors that allow them to fly around the south coast of Italy.

Reports have surfaced that Air Force UAVs are already used in law enforcement operations, including the shadowing of mafia suspects in Sicily, although the Italian Air Force has declined to comment.

International waters around Italy are covered by a so-called Flight Information Region — an airspace zone —monitored by Italy.

“To fly UAVs there, we would work with Italian civilian aviation authorities,” said an Air Force spokesman. “Coordination with Eurocontrol, EASA [European Air Safety Agency] or ICAO [International Civil Aviation Organization] is needed only in case of significant changes to the continental air traffic flows, which is not the case.”

If the UAVs need to fly into the Flight Information Regions monitored by

neighboring countries such as Tunisia, Libya or Egypt, he said, permission would be needed from those countries to create a segregated airspace zone in which UAVs could fly.

The UAVs will be flown using both line of sight and satellite navigation, and fly missions up to 20 hours using their electro-optical, radar and IR sensors.

ATK to produce second AARGM lot for US, Italy, Australia

The US Navy (USN) has awarded ATK a USD102.4 million contract for the second full-rate production lot of the AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM).

The contract covers AARGM and Captive Air Training Missiles (CATMs) for the USN and the Italian Air Force, as well as CATMs for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), ATK announced on 11 October.

Anti-radiation missiles are used against surface-to-air missile (SAM) batteries to clear a path for a strike force. AARGM is an upgrade to the USN's legacy AGM-88B High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missile inventory. AARGM provides in-cockpit, real-time electronic order-of-battle situational awareness. It is able to rapidly engage traditional and advanced land- and sea-based air-defence threats, as well as non-radar, time-sensitive targets.

The contract includes the RAAF's first Foreign Military Sales procurement of AARGM, according to ATK. The CATMs will be used for training purposes as the RAAF takes delivery of Boeing EA-18G Growler aircraft.

AARGM is currently deployed in multiple theaters with the USN and the US Marine Corps. The system achieved Initial Operational Capability in July 2012 and was awarded an initial full-rate production contract in August 2012.

The missile is deployed on US F/A-18C/D Hornet aircraft and is being integrated on the USN's EA-18G Growler and F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet aircraft, as well as the Italian Air Force's Tornado ECR aircraft. The missile is also compatible with the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter.

Top Ten Military Expenditure Database

List of countries by military expenditures :

1. United States : 682,478,000,000 $


2. People's Republic of China :166,107,000,000$

3. Russia : 90,749,000,000$

4. United Kingdom : 61,007,000,000$

5. Japan :59,267,000,000$

6. France :58,943,000,000$

7. Saudi Arabia :56,724,000,000$

8. India : 45,785,000,000$

9. Germany : 43,478,000,000$

10. Italy : 34,004,000,000$

11. Brazil : 33,143,000,000$

12. South Korea : 31,660,000,000$

13. Australia : 31,660,000,000$

14. Canada : 22,600,000,000$

15. Turkey : 18,184,000,000$

Italy, Norway Jets Part of $3.4B F-35 Deal

The Pentagon awarded Lockheed Martin a $3.4 billion contract for 35 F-35 joint strike fighters, a contract that includes the first aircraft orders for Italy and Norway.