In line with the directive of the Minister of Defense on the "Security and Defense Strategy for the Mediterranean" issued in May 2022, the Defense Staff decided to expand the maritime surveillance operation on a strategic, operational and tactical level " Safe Sea ”, launched on 12 March 2015, starting with the enlargement of the area of operation, which passes from the current 160.000 to 2.000.000 square km, including most of the international maritime spaces of the Mediterranean basin. This will allow the Navy to guarantee a structured air-naval presence, including underwater assets, in all the most crucial sectors of the region and including the Eastern Mediterranean, particularly significant in relation to the need to protect relevant national interests and contribute to international stability, in particular. cooperation with NATO, the European Union, the United Nations and the other coalitions and alliances to which Italy adheres.
The "Safe Mediterranean" operation, in full continuity with the previous one, sees the deployment of a maritime military device that includes up to 6 ships and submarines, with the support of the organic aircraft of the naval units and the aircraft of the Navy and the Ground-based Air Force, to ensure presence and surveillance activities, in application of national legislation and current international agreements.
Among the tasks to be performed, the defense of maritime communication lines, the control of the underwater domain, the safeguarding of economic activities of interest on the high seas and the protection of national, merchant and fishing fleets, as well as means belonging to other bodies, will have particular importance. of the state.
In a Mediterranean increasingly central to international equilibrium, the maritime garrison that the Navy constantly ensures on the high seas is expanding, to combat illegal activities and to contribute, with other allied navies, to the safety and stability of the entire area with the prospect of ensuring national interests also at a trans-regional level in the broader context of the enlarged Mediterranean. This also through the synergistic set of inter-agency, inter-agency and international commitments in which the Defense, through the Navy, is actively involved and protagonist.
