What are the Nato in Italy bases and how they work

With approx 120 installations of different nature and management present in the territory, Italy is one of the countries with the highest concentration of American military facilities throughout Europe. The American bases in Italy were installed starting from 1951 thanks to a series of bilateral agreements between Rome and Washington, with which Italy granted to US military its territory. Formally the bases fall within the Italian sovereigntywhile to United States it is up to operational control. I Italian soldiers on Italian territory there are approximately 13 thousand, engaged in various capacities in services logistics, intelligence, operational units e command.

The types of bases are divided into NATO bases managed by the alliance, Italian bases made available to NATO e shared command bases between Italy, the United States and NATO. The NATO bases they are those of Avianoin Friuli, Sigonella in Sicily, Ederle Barracks e Base Del Din in Veneto, Camp Darby in Tuscany, the Naval Support Activity in Campania and Lazio e Ghedi in Lombardy. The best known force base is that of Sigonelladefined as ‘Mediterranean aircraft carrier‘, scene in 1985 of the clash between the Craxi government el’Reagan administration on the occasion of Achille Lauro crisis. Sigonella it is a “mixed” base, that is, under the Italian controlbut used by Marina and fromAmerican Air Force.

The main American bases in Italy

The Sicilian base hosts the MQ-9 Reaper drones e EP-3 surveillance aircraft. Another prominent basis is that of Avianoin Friuli, used as refueling hub per i air raids in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo and Libya. It’s one of the biggest US air bases in Europehosts the 31esimo Fighter Wing con F-16 fighter and probably, even if the information has never been officially confirmed, some hydrogen nuclear warheads type B61-4. American nuclear warheads they should also be present in the base of Ghediin the province of Brescia. Again the information is top secret.

Other strategic bases and facilities

Among them key bases also that of Camp Darbyin the province of Pisa (even if it is one Italian base where they also operate US military), Of Ederle Barracks e Din Barracksin the province of Vicenza. THE’Southern Italybeyond Sigonella hosts the infrastructure of Naval Support Activitythe American naval forces in Europedivided between Lazio and Campania, a Gaeta e Napoli. The basis of Gaeta during the war in the Balkans in the 1990s it hosted the command of the Theodore Roosevelt. Other American structures on Italian territory are those of Solbiate People (in the province of Varese) of Poggio Renaticoin the Ferrara area, of La Spezia in Liguria, than the one on the estate of Bobbin in Tuscany, of Cecchignola e Gaeta (Latin) in Lazio, by Mondragone (Caserta) e Napoli in Campania, of Taranto in Puglia and Trapani Union.

The role of Naples and the secret bases

A Napoli one of the two is based NATO command centers (the other is in the Netherlands), the US submarine base in the Mediterranean, as well as the air force command and gods US Marines. In addition to directly operational bases there are a hundred structures between research centers, deposits, training ranges, telecommunications stationsand about twenty secret bases whose exact location has never been detected. Niscemi in the province of Caltanissetta, for example, it hosts the Muos system (Mobile user objective system), which also monitors the situation in Middle East through radar e satellite.

Extraterritoriality and agreements on the use of bases

All the then they enjoy extraterritoriality and are not subject tolegal system of the nation they are in and everything that happens within them is covered by secretas well as the number of present forces. Il Italian government he made it known that he had not received any requests from Washington for the use of the bases in conflict with Iran. According to i bilateral agreements signed between Rome and Washington, the United States have the obligation to notify and justify each use “not ordinary” of the bases. The use of the bases must always obtain the free quote dal Italian government.