Antarctica: the Air Force aircraft return to fly for ENEA

(To air Force)
18/10/19

After about twenty years, the Air Force aircraft return to Antarctica to support the 2019/2020 Italian research campaign of the National Antarctic Research Program (PNRA). In fact, a collaboration agreement was signed in recent days between the Armed Force and ENEA (National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development) aimed at ensuring air transport in favor of the XXXV expedition, which will take officially kicking off in the coming weeks.

Specifically, a C-130J aircraft of the 46th Pisa Air Brigade with crews trained to operate in extreme climatic and environmental conditions, in this specific case on icy runways (landing on the pack), will carry passengers and materials according to the needs. represented by ENEA, guaranteeing air links between Christchurch airport in New Zealand and Antarctica, both at the Italian “Mario Zucchelli” station in Baia Terra Nova, and at the US station in McMurdo.

The agreement was signed in Rome, at the Palazzo dell'Aeronautica, by the air division general Giovanni Magazzino, representing the Armed Forces, and by the engineer Vincenzo Cincotti, for ENEA.

The collaboration, in addition to a renewed synergy capable of providing the national system and the national and international scientific community with skills and capabilities peculiar to the Armed Forces, is also an important training and operational opportunity for the Air Force, called to project personnel and vehicles in a context characterized by very complex, sometimes extreme climatic and environmental conditions, such as those present in Antarctica.

This agreement confirms the capacity of the Italian Air Force (AM) to guarantee long distance transports from Italy and also represents a concrete demonstration of projection and logistical support, an effort that has already been underway for some time by AM technical specialized personnel for the realization, in synergy with ENEA, of an aviopista on earth, semi-prepared, near the Mario Zucchelli Station, which will allow greater autonomy for Italian expeditions in the future.

The PNRA campaigns, funded by the Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR), with the logistical coordination of ENEA and the scientific coordination of the CNR (National Research Council) and the participation of the Armed Forces, represent a virtuous example of synergy between different institutional actors, thanks to which numerous research activities are conducted every year in the various fields of application in the physics of the atmosphere, biology, glaciology, geology and many other sectors also involving Italian and foreign universities.