Space: Visit to Italy by an American delegation as part of the West Space Seminar

(To air Force)
17/01/25

On Monday, January 13, in the wake of military space cooperation between the Air Force and the US Space Force, an American delegation from the prestigious West Space Seminar she visited the Palazzo Aeronautica in Rome, the seat of the Air Force General Staff, and the air division of aeronautical and space experimentation (DASAS) of Pratica di Mare (RM).

Il West Space Seminar is a highly competitive training course of the US Space Force, structured in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), designed to prepare military leadership to meet the challenges and capitalize on the opportunities of the space domain.

The visit to Italy is part of the Space Regional Security Studies (SRSS) programme, a key element of the curriculum of the West Space Seminar, which includes an educational trip abroad in order to learn about the main space realities of a partner country from a military, governmental and industrial point of view.

During the visit to Palazzo Aeronautica, the staff of the General Office for Space of the Air Force General Staff presented an overview of the Italian military space sector, examining in depth the capacity development activities in the aerospace sector and the international cooperation in progress.

In the afternoon, the delegation was accompanied to DASAS where the main experimental activities in the aerospace domain were illustrated. In particular, the staff of the aerospace engineering group (GIAS) of the experimental flight department (RSV) has demonstrated the capabilities of modeling and simulation in the field of Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) and presented the projects related to the introduction of disruptive technologies in the field of Space Situational Awareness (SSA). Finally, an important contribution was made by the Aeronautical and Space Medicine Department (RMAS), which offered an overview of the microgravity experiments conducted during the Virtute-1 and Axiom-3 “Voluntas” space missions, in which the Italian Air Force has taken part in recent years.

There is a consolidated collaboration between Italy and the USA in the military space sector and this visit demonstrates the importance that the United States attributes to the partnership with our country. In addition to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for access to the GPS encrypted service and for the exchange of SATCOM resources, the Air Force receives from the US partner valuable SSA data that are processed at the SSA center of the aerospace operations command in Poggio Renatico (FE). Since 2017, Air Force personnel have been participating in the American exercise Global Sentinel and this year he will take part for the first time in the Schriever Wargame, a US exercise open to selected partner nations. The Air Force also maintains permanent relations with its US counterparts through an Italian exchange officer at the US Space Force headquarters.

As evidence of the strong bond between Italy and the USA also in the field of training, an officer of the Air Force had the opportunity to participate in the West Space Seminar underway and is currently acquiring crucial skills that will support the growth path of the Armed Forces in the aerospace domain.