Photo Report: Italian Army Aviation celebrates its anniversary with a tactical event involving heavy lifter, attack and special ops choppers

On May 10, the Italian Army celebrated the 61st anniversary of the service’s Aviation at Viterbo airfield, northwest of Rome, with an interesting tactical event and final flypast which saw the participation of CH-47, NH-90, AB-412, AB-205, A-129 choppers,  some of which are periodically deployed to Afghanistan in support of ISAF, as well as P-180 and Dornier 228 planes.

Viterbo is one of the most important Army airfields. Along with the Centro Addestrativo Aviazione dell’Esercito (Army Aviation Training Centre), it hosts several operational flying units: the 1° Reggimento “Antares”, the 28° Gruppo Squadroni “Tucano” and the 26° REOS (Reparto Operazioni Speciali – Special Operations Unit).

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Last year, Viterbo hosted the Italian Call 2011, a Multinational Helicopter Exercise.

The Aviationist’s photographer Giovanni Maduli took the following pictures of the ceremony and “dynamic demo”.