Today the central director of the Fleet Support Service of the French Navy, engineer Francois Pintart was awarded the honor of Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. The Navy Chief of Staff, team admiral Valter Girardelli, presented the prestigious award in the Salone dei Marmi.
The honorary title of the Italian Republic recognizes the merits of the activity carried out through a disinterested action and aimed exclusively at the good of the two Nations and the two Marines. As part of the bi-national "Support in Service" program of the class naval units Horizon, Eng. Pintart has in fact identified and shared with the Navy's logistic command the strategies that have ensured significant results also with a view to optimizing the public resources of the two countries.
As emphasized by Admiral Girardelli, the importance of the results achieved "go well beyond the practical results and represent a very clear model to imitate to improve the collaboration of the European Nations in the Defense sector" - adding that these examples of human virtues strengthen the feelings of brotherhood and community of intent already rooted in the personnel of the respective Armed Forces, exerting a stimulating function since they "act as a reference, a guide, a system, for all the younger staff who represent and represent the leading executives of our two Nations, of our two Marines for the future ".
Class 1960, the engineer Pintart has held over the thirty-year career at the General Directorate of Armaments French, prestigious assignments including technical expert in tactical missiles, director of the PAAMS surface-to-air missile systems program jointly developed with Italy and the United Kingdom, and director of the naval weapons management unit responsible for the acquisition of combat systems and armament for surface and underwater units.
Thanks to the military cooperation between Italy and France and on the basis of the results achieved so far, bilateral activity that also involves French and Italian industries finds new impetus. A clear example is the revision of the 76 / 62 mm guns on board the units of the Marine Nationale that will be controlled at La Spezia by the manufacturer as well as the future development of support programs for frigates class Fremm.
