Italian Armed Forces

The ground force of Italy, the Regio Esercito dates back to the unification of Italy in the 1850s and 1860s. It fought in colonial engagements in China during the Boxer Rebellion, against the Ottoman Empire in Libya (1911-1912), on the Alps against the Austro-Hungarian Empire during World War I, in Abyssinia during the Interwar period, and in World War II in Albania, Greece, North Africa and Russia, as well as in the Italian Civil War. During the Cold War the Army prepared itself to defend against a Warsaw Pact invasion from the east. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, it has seen extensive peacekeeping service in Lebanon, Afghanistan, and Iraq. On 29 July 2004 it became a professional all-volunteer force when conscription was finally ended.

The navy of Italy was created in 1861, following the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, as the Regia Marina. The new navy's baptism of fire came during the Third Italian War of Independence against the Austrian Empire. During the First World War, it spent its major efforts in the Adriatic Sea, fighting the Austro-Hungarian Navy. In the Second World War, it engaged the Royal Navy in a two-and-a-half-year struggle for the control of the Mediterranean Sea. After the war, the new Marina Militare, being a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), has taken part in many coalition peacekeeping operations. It is a blue-water navy. The Guardia Costiera (Coast Guard) is a component of the navy.

Eurofighter Typhoons of the Italian Air Force

The air force of Italy was founded as an independent service arm on 28 March 1923, by King Vittorio Emanuele III as the Regia Aeronautica (which equates to "Royal Air Force"). During the 1930s, it was involved in its first military operations in Ethiopia in 1935, and later in the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939. Eventually, Italy entered World War II alongside Germany. After the armistice of 8 September 1943, Italy was divided into two sides, and the same fate befell the Regia Aeronautica. The Air Force was split into the Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force in the south aligned with the Allies, and the pro-Axis Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana in the north until the end of the war. When Italy was made a republic by referendum, the air force was given its current name Aeronautica Militare.

The Arma dei Carabinieri is the gendarmerie and military police of Italy. The corps was instituted in 1814 by King Victor Emmanuel I of Savoy with the aim of providing the Kingdom of Sardinia with a police corps; it is therefore older than Italy itself. The new force was divided into divisions on the scale of one division for each province of Italy. The divisions were further divided into companies and subdivided into lieutenancies, which commanded and coordinated the local police stations and were distributed throughout the national territory in direct contact with the public. The Italian unification saw the number of divisions increased, and in 1861 the Carabinieri were appointed the "First Force" of the new national military organization. In recent years Carabinieri became the fourth branch of Italian Armed Forces. Primarily they carry out law enforcement, military policing duties and peacekeeping mission abroad, such as Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. At the Sea Islands Conference of the G8 in 2004, the Carabinieri were given the mandate to establish a Center of Excellence for Stability Police Units (CoESPU) to spearhead the development of training and doctrinal standards for civilian police units attached to international peacekeeping missions.[12]

Current operations of the Italian Armed Forces highlighted on a map of Afro-Eurasia

Alpini Sappers of the 32nd Alpine Engineer Regiment in Afghanistan

KFOR-MSU Carabinieri in front of the Ibar Bridge, in Mitrovica, Kosovo. (2019).

Since the second post-war the Italian armed force has become more and more engaged in international peace support operations, mainly under the auspices of the United Nations. The Italian armed forces are currently participating in 26 missions.[1]

•  United Nations
  • UNMOGIP, since 1951 (India and Pakistan)
  • UNTSO, since 1958 (Israel, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon)
  • UNIFIL, since 1978 (Lebanon)
  • MINURSO, since 1991 (Western Sahara)
  • UNFICYP, since 2005 (Cyprus)
  • MINUSMA, since 2013 (Mali)
•  European Union
  • EUFOR Althea, since 2004 (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
  • EUBAM Rafah, since 2005 (Gaza–Egypt border)
  • EUPOL Afghanistan, since 2007 (Afghanistan)
  • EUNAVFOR Atalanta, since 2008 (Gulf of Aden)
  • EUMM Georgia, since 2008 (Georgia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia)
  • EULEX Kosovo, since 2008 (Kosovo)
  • EUTM Somalia, since 2010 (Somalia)
  • EUCAP Nestor, since 2012 (Indian Ocean)
  • EUCAP Sahel Niger, since 2012 (Niger)
  • EUBAM Libya, since 2013 (Libya)
  • EUTM Mali, since 2013 (Mali)
  • EUFOR RCA, since 2014 (Central African Republic)
•  NATO
  • KFOR, since 1999 (Kosovo)
  • ISAF, 2001-2021 (Afghanistan)
  • Operation Active Endeavour, since 2001 (Mediterranean Sea)
  • Operation Ocean Shield, since 2009 (Gulf of Aden)
• Multilateral missions
  • TIPH-2, since 1997 (West Bank)
  • Operation Cyrene, since 2011 (Libya)
  • MIADIT Somalia, since 2013 (Somalia and Djibouti)
  • MIADIT Palestine, since 2014 (West Bank)