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).

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”.

About David Cenciotti

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David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.