A celebration for 101 years of history. They were celebrated with a ceremony on March 27, a Guidonia, at the New Competition Center of the Armed Forces. The event, which preceded by one day the official date of the constitution of the Blue Army, born as an autonomous and independent Armed Force on 28 March 1923, took place in the presence of the Minister of Defense Guido Crosetto, of the Chief of Staff of Defence, Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone and the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Air Force General Luca Goretti. Among the authorities present at the ceremony, the Vice President of the Chamber of Deputies, Hon. Giorgio Mulè, the Undersecretaries of State for Defense, Sen. Isabella Rauti and Hon.
Matteo Perego of Cremnago, the President of Copasir Lorenzo Guerini and the Mayor of Guidonia Montecelio Mauro Lombardo.
The “100+1” ceremony continues in the wake of the special anniversary of the AM Centenary, a prestigious milestone achieved last year by the Armed Forces and which today becomes an opportunity to look to an increasingly challenging and changing tomorrow. “Future” is in fact the key word of this new page that the Air Force is preparing to write, aware of the peculiarities that characterize the air vehicle and ready to take up the challenge of handing over to the next generations an operational tool capable of countering hybrid threats and with a broad technological spectrum.
“Today’s anniversary represents our genesis, our reason for being, our constant and absolute reference.
We celebrate more than a century of life of the institution or, better to say, 100 +1 to underline, with a simple mathematical symbol, the entry into a new era that leaves room for the future”, declared the Chief of Staff of the ‘Air Force during his speech. With reference then to the current geopolitical context where asymmetric threats are added to the classic forms of contrast, even within new domains such as space and cyber, he continued: “We will necessarily have to continue to evolve to avoid giving ancient answers to modern challenges. We are an organization characterized by complex, sophisticated and cutting-edge weapon systems of which the 5th generation ones currently represent the spearhead but are already ready to give way to subsequent ones. They not only determine niches of operational and industrial excellence, but allow for organizational growth of the entire structure and in particular of the specific skills required of the blue staff, which constitutes its true and undisputed value”. And it is precisely on the AM staff that General Goretti wanted to focus: “The structures change, the machines evolve but the people remain and pass on the reference principles. They have always been the protagonists of our history, proudly proud of our aviation identity.”
