fonte: http://aimpoints.hq.af.mil/display.cfm?id=2652
Italy may lease “about two” C-17 airlifters from the United States as its overseas presence expands, a U.S. defense source said. If the lease goes ahead, Italy will become only the second European military to control its own strategic airlift capability after the United Kingdom, which is also leasing C-17s.
Pentagon officials received an official notification in February from Italy of its intention to pursue the potential lease, and further government-to-government talks will follow to iron out Italy’s exact requirements. Italian officials have already been in contact with Boeing to get an idea of what the costs would be, said one Pentagon official. The aircraft could be flying Italian troops six months after an agreement.
A Boeing manager here declined to comment on the possible lease deal.
Italy, with more than 3,000 troops stationed in Iraq, is now establishing a presence in the Afghan province of Herat and will run NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) command in Kabul for nine months, beginning in August. For this operation, Italy will deploy 180 personnel from its NATO command at Solbiate Olana near Milan, along with 600 communications and logistics personnel.
Italy has received all of the 22 C-130Js it purchased, but also uses civil airlines to fly troops and chartered cargo aircraft for equipment. The military also uses the European Airlift Coordination Centre, operated by European air forces, to acquire flying time on aircraft, while capacity also has been obtained on U.S. C-17s.
“The potential lease plan took off after Italian officials saw the costs of using U.S.-owned C-17s to fly troops to Afghanistan for the elections last autumn,” said the Pentagon official.
The bill was more than $6 million for around 20-25 flights, he said, adding that those expenses were paid for by the United States because it had requested the coalition assistance.
“The advantage of a military aircraft like the C-17 or the C-130J over a civil aircraft is that it can land in operational zones such as Nassiryah in Iraq, where Italy has troops based,” said Andrea Grazioso, a consultant to the Centro Militare Studi Strategici here, part of the Ministry of Defense.
NATO will use its own aircraft flying from Cologne, Germany, to transport troops from Italy’s Taurinense brigade into Kabul and back for the ISAF mission, a NATO source said.
If Italy pursues a C-17 lease, it is likely Boeing would provide new aircraft to the U.S. Air Force for lease to Italy because all U.S. planes are being flown in operations now, and the company might be able to have planes available within six months following negotiations, said the Pentagon official.
However, Italy would not be able to get pilots trained quickly enough, said the official. Airlift-qualified pilots would require nine to 12 months of training if sent to the United States, he added.
To get the aircraft in the air faster, Italy could acquire trained pilots through NATO channels while it prepared its own, said the official. This would mean the aircraft could be flying as soon as the U.S. Air Force provided them.
The lease would likely occur under the U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program, which automatically incurs a 2.5 percent administration cost in addition to the estimate given by Boeing.
The official said there was a possibility for some of the logistics activity to be classified as a commercial sale, and potentially contracted out to Italian firms.
“We have learned from Italy’s leasing of fighter aircraft, where all activity was run as an FMS, even when technicians went to train at contractor training facilities,” said the official. “That created numerous obstacles to overcome in a very short time frame. The U.S. government should investigate the possibility of the USAF commercially subcontracting some of the logistics support on a potential C-17 lease to Italian firms.”
One Italian firm, Alisud, loads cargo onto American transport planes, including C-17s, at Sigonella, the U.S. air base in Sicily




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) nn si oppone a priori all'acquisto di armamenti, il punto è ke oggi la situazione è ben diversa e, se ben ricordi, Romano si avvelenò il dente (e credo ke sia ancora avvelenato) per l'uscita dell'Italia dell'A400M... in più, se considerti che andrebbe ad acquistare aeroplani dall'avversario (sono buono nella definizione) GEORGE "DOUBLE U"......
