2017-07-13 The F-35A was a key element for this year’s Paris Air Show.
In the videos below, the F-35A at the Paris Air Show is highlighted.
Paris Air Show: F-35 makes its debut from Shephard Media on Vimeo.
Earlier, we have provided a series of video and photo updates on the Air Show which provided an overview for those not at the Air Show this year.
2017-06-26 In the slideshows and videos for June 23, 24 and 25, the final events at this year’s Paris Air Show are highighted.
The photos and videos are provided by ParisAirShow.TV.
The following aircraft are highlighted in the video for the flying display on June 25, 2017.
The slideshow below highlights a number of aircraft at the Air Show as seen on June 24, 2017.
And the flying display for June 24, 2017, highlighted the following events:
Paris Air Show, June 24, 2017 from SldInfo.com on Vimeo.
The slideshow below highlights aircraft as viewed on June 23, 2017 at the PAS.
And finally, the flying display on June 23, 2017 provided a look at the following aircraft:
Paris Air Show Flying Display, June 23, 2017 from SldInfo.com on Vimeo.
2017-06-22 In the slideshows for yesterday’s and today’s activities at the Paris Air Show, we have several photos provided by ParisAirShow.TV.
The following aircraft are highlighted in the photos for yesterday:
The following aircraft are highlighted in the photos for today.
The flying display video for June 21, 2017 highlighted the following aircraft:
Paris Air Show Flying Display, June 21, 2017 from SldInfo.com on Vimeo.
And today’s flying display video highlighted the following aircraft:
•NHI NH 90 Caiman
•Airbus A400M
•AVA CAP 432 MXS
•Extra 320
•Lockheed Martin F35 Lighting II
•Extra 330 LE
•Airbus A350-1000
Flying Display, June 22, 2017 at the Paris Air Show from SldInfo.com on Vimeo.
And these Pentagon videos highlighted the U.S. military presence at this year’s Paris Air Show which is much greater than in the last PAS.
2017-06-17 According to an article published on the Norwegian Ministry of Defence website, NATO will be focusing on its core mission of collective defense in the upcoming Trident Juncture exercise.
“NATO needs to hold exercises on a large scale. Only this way are we able to test all the levels in the alliance: From the troops on the ground and all the way up to a strategic level”, says General Denis Mercier, Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (SACT) in NATO.
General Mercier (right) together with Norway’s Chief of Defence, Admiral Haakon Bruun-Hanssen.
The French General thinks Norway will be ideal for an exercise on this scale.
“NATO needs realistic training, where we can combine operations in the air, at sea and on land. In Norway we get everything, this is one of the best places to train in Europe”, says Mercier.
“The cold climate also brings extra challenges for the soldiers, that hones their skill.”
For many years, NATO has been occupied with international conflicts, but recent developments have led to a renewed focus on the core of the alliance.
“Collective defence and training for this will be key. This is one of NATO’s core missions and we will spend more time on this in the future”, says general Denis Mercier.
The General underlines the importance in focusing on the core mission: NATO as a defensive organisation.
“Deterrence is key for NATO. With large-scale exercises we can demonstrate our capacity and uphold our credibility.”
https://forsvaret.no/en/taking-nato-back-to-its-core-mission
Editor’s Note: Norway is refocusing its efforts on its Article III commitments to self defense and encouraging NATO more broadly to enhance its collective defense capabilities.
We discussed this way ahead with the new Chief of Staff of the Norwegian Air Force earlier this year.
2017-02-24 By Robbin Laird
During the Norwegian Airpower Conference held at Trondheim in early February 2017, I had a chance to discuss with the new Chief the Royal Norwegian Air Force, Major General Tonje Skinnarland, and Brigadier General Jan Ove Rygg, chief of the National Air Operations Center (NAOC) their perspectives on the way ahead.
The Chief of the Royal Norwegian Air Force set the tone for much of the discussion during the Conference by focusing on the Norwegian Air Force in transition and the challenge of shaping integrated defense capabilities for the defense of Norway.
Norway being a small country with a large geography and a large neighbor on its border obviously needed to shape a defense capability highly interactive with its allies to ensure deterrence in depth for Norwegian defense.
The perspective of the Chief of the Royal Norwegian Air Force on the F-35 was that this was not at all a replacement aircraft, but a strategic asset when properly integrated with the national defense force and NATO forces.
The Air Force is in the throes of significant modernization with the addition of the F-35, the P-8 as well as new helicopters, and the overall challenge was to ensure integration of these platforms into a joint force able to operate in the integrated battlespace.
And she made it very clear that it was preparation for and training to ensure effective capabilities for the high-end fight, which was the core focus of attention.
She highlighted the need to reshape concepts of operations for Norwegian defense and to work across the Norwegian defense structure for integrated C2 which was crucial.
She also highlighted that with the F-35 distributed operations were possible so in reforming C2 part of the challenge was what is called mission command, namely, authorizing pilots for missions, rather than providing for overly centralized tactical operational control.
I asked both senior Air Force officers the same question to start the conversation, namely, the Air Force is in a period of significant transition, how do they view the challenges and the opportunities?
Major General Skinnarland: “We are clearly modernizing our platforms but we need to transform our force, our culture and our processes as well.
“The strategic decisions made in the long-term investment will make us, even though small, one of the most modern air forces in the world in some years to come.
https://forsvaret.no/en/newsroom/news-stories/new-long-term-plan-for-the-armed-forces
“At the same time, the security situation is challenging. After the annexation of Crimea and the buildup of Russian capabilities over the last years has made us understand that we have need to revitalize the concept of actually defending Norway in high intensity operations.
“It is not just about adding new platforms; it is about shaping joint capabilities for the defense of Norway in a high intensity operational setting.
“To achieve integrated defense and joint operations will not be easy and certainly will not happen simply by adding new platforms.
“There are a lot of different tasks to be done ranging from getting all the spare parts, logistics, the training, and, of course, shaping the national defense plan.
“As we get all these new systems, which will make us even more capable of handling the current situation and current threats together with other allies and partners, there is another challenge.”
How best to be able to manage the process of change?
“A key challenge will be on the human capital side.
“How do we best train and task our people in shaping our new integrated force? For it will depend on them to actually bring such a force into being.
“When it comes to opportunities in the new systems and particularly in the F-35, the conference has alluded a lot to this, the capability in the aircraft itself with weapons technology and networking will come.
“But how do we make sure that we are able to utilize these technologies fully and effectively?
“We must shape the correct competencies, the correct concepts of operations, and develop and execute effective plans for joint operations as well.”
Brigadier General Jan Ove Rygg then answered the same question from his operational responsibilities.
“If I address the same question, but from my perspective, the challenge is to get the joint processes in Norway to the point where we can do targeting efficiently.
“We need to build an effective national command and control capability which seamlessly works with core allies who are crucial to defense operations in the High North.
“What makes this particularly challenging is what we are taking about is national integration and C2 for national defense ground, sea and air operations, which can operate with core allies in extended defense operations”
Question: Clearly, with core allies in the region operating similar platforms, notably F-35 and P-8, there are significant opportunities for interoperability built in, but obviously these potentials need to become realities.
How best to ensure that happens?
Major General Skinnarland: “With the UK, the US, the Danes and the Dutch operating the same combat aircraft, there are clear opportunities to shape new common operational capabilities.
“Also crucial is to shape a strong European F-35 sustainment base to ensure that we get the kind of sortie generation capabilities inherent in the aircraft, but you need the right kind of logistical support to achieve the outcomes you want.
“The P-8s operating from the UK, Iceland, and Norway can shape a maritime domain awareness data capability which can inform our forces effectively as well but again, this requires work to share the data and to shape common concepts of operations.
“A key will be to exercise often and effectively together.
“To shape effective concepts of operations will require bringing the new equipment, and the people together to share experience and to shape a common way ahead.
“In this sense, we see Trident Juncture 2018 as especially important in shaping effective national C2 and working towards more integrated operations with allies coming to Norway for the exercise.
“We should plug and play in terms of our new capabilities; but that will not happen by itself, by simply adding new equipment.
“It will be hard work.
https://forsvaret.no/en/exercise-and-operations/exercises/nato-exercise-2018
“We have regular exercises in Norway like the Arctic Challenge Exercise, which is an exercise building on the weekly trilateral fighter training between Finland, Sweden, and Norway.
“In May/June 2017 this invitex will see more than one hundred fighter aircraft from 8 nations, including the UK and US, participating in high quality training in the Nordic countries.
“You also have other national exercises which are important in shaping our concepts of operations.
“We need to enhance engagement with core NATO allies, such as expanding our working relationship with allied airpower operating in Norway during exercises.
“We would love to see a UK F-35B squadron and a USAF F-35A deploy to Norway during an exercise and operate in the northern part of Norway under Norwegian command and control to see how we can get them to work together.
“They might fly either from home bases with air-to-air tanker or stage from Norway, and work on how we effectively can integrate those squadrons during joint operations.”
Brigadier General Jan Ove Rygg: “The C2 issue is really a strategic one.
“We are very good at the tactical level in operating in a joint context with our C2; we need to be as capable at the strategic level.
“With the fifth generation force, you have capabilities to off-board weapons and to direct fire from sea or land as well as air.
“When you try to do targeting and actually engage targets with different resources it is a challenge.
“How do we shape a C2 structure, which can take advantage of this capability?
For an interesting overview of the way ahead, see the following:
http://cms.polsci.ku.dk/events/airpower2014/Gjert_Lage_Dyndal.pdf
https://www.sldinfo.com/shaping-a-way-ahead-for-norwegian-defense/
06/06/2017: U.S. Air Force Airmen partner with the Royal Air Force and the French Air Force for a second trilateral exercise at Joint Base Langley-Eustis. Atlantic Trident 2017, hosted by the 1st Fighter Wing, focuses on air operations in a highly contested operational environment through a variety of complex, simulated adversary scenarios.
The goal of the exercise was to enhance interoperability through combined coalition aerial campaigns.
VA, UNITED STATES:05.02.2017
Video by Peter Ising:Airman Magazine
2017-05-31 In a recent article in The Manufacturer, there is a look at F-35 manufacturing in the United Kingdom.
It is the Typhoon and F-35, very much live MOD acquisitions, that offer the greatest opportunity – and imperative – for replacing parts that combine the daunting mix of intensive man-hour manufacturing with low lifetimes, with parts that can only be made possible by technologies that were invented long after either plane was a mere twinkle in its designer’s eye.
This article offers some illustrations of how BAE Systems has successfully deployed these new technologies in the search for greater efficiency, lower costs and longer operational lifespans….
The article is well worth reading.
For example:
BAE Systems makes the rear fuselage of the plane, from just before the tail backwards, to include the two V-angled vertical tail-planes and the two horizontal tail-planes. There are 3,180 F-35s on order, so there is plenty of high-value work to be done in the coming years. The contract extends to a range of internal systems and post-production services.
There is something deeply impressive and simultaneously quite intimidating about the main machining facility. Sixteen Starrag 1250STC 5-axis milling machines dominate the space. Behind glass windows one can catch glimpses of the robotic arms sliding between the machine head and the tool storage to select the right one for the next phase of the job.
The titanium billets come in pre-cast by subcontractors, in rough form, ready for the fine machining that takes several hours per unit. No room is allowed for error, with tolerances of just 5/1000ths of an inch in the machining process, which drops to just 7/10,000ths of an inch during the assembly process. It is a financial as well as an engineering imperative – one intricate part of roughly 3 feet by 2.5 feet is dubbed the DB9, because one could buy an Aston Martin for the same money it costs to produce.
Just as with the Typhoon machining, human intervention is minimal….
05/21/2017: The Marine Corps Made history by shooting the F-35B’s gun pod in flight for the first time on May 15th, 2017.
As Tom Demerly wrote in The Aviationist about the gun pod:
The U.S. Marine Corps Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter has completed the test firing of its externally mounted General Dynamics GAU-22 25mm gun pod.
The final aerial test firing took place on May 8, 2017 and was conducted by The Salty Dogs of Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23’s Integrated Test Force (ITF) at Naval Air Station (NAS) Patuxent River.
Of particular interest in the video just released (that includes footage from several different sorties) is the variety of additional external stores carried on the test F-35Bs.
The aircraft are shown with a version of the AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air missile and, in a separate flight, with what appears to be a 500lb laser guided bomb possibly a version of the GBU-12 Paveway II.
The new General Dynamics GAU-22 25mm gun pod uses a unique four-barrel configuration that was developed from the highly successful five-barrel, 25mm GAU-12/U gun also built by General Dynamics. The new GAU-22 gun, carried internally on the USAF F-35A variant and in the external pod for the U.S. Marines’ F-35B is and U.S. Navy F-35C is more than 40 pounds lighter and requires 20 percent less overall space than the earlier GAU-12, 5-barrel 25mm gun. The new GAU-22 weapon has a reported rate of fire of “up to 3,300 rounds per minute”. The rate of fire of aerial guns is often reported as “up to…” since the gun can take several seconds to achieve its maximum rate of fire because of the weight of the rotating gun barrels.
The successful in-flight test firing of the 25mm gun pod (started at the end of February), specifically on the U.S. Marine Corps F-35B, somehow addresses questions over the F-35 program’s ability to perform the close air support mission…..
Lt. General Davis, the Deputy Commandant of Aviation highlighted the flexibility of the F-35B in comments made in 2015:
The aircraft’s ability to alternate between accessing contested areas and deliverying heavy fire power based on the needs of any given sortie “I think for our adversaries will be quite worrisome, for us should be a source of great comfort,” Deputy Commandant of the Marine Corps for Aviation Lt. Gen. Jon Davis said.
“No other airplane can go from fifth to fourth and back to fifth again. I’m buying pylons for the airplane. I get the pylons in 3F software, which comes in 2017. [With the pylons] I can load up an F-35B with about 3,000 pounds more ordnance than I can put on an F-18 right now,” Davis said.
“So I can have an airplane that does fifth-generation stuff for the opening salvo of the fight.
“When I have to go to level of effort, I can load the pylons on, load ordnance on there, do level of effort, come back, sail to another part of the world, take the pylons off and go do the fifth-generation thing again. …
“It offers us tremendous capability for the Marine Corps that’s going to have one type/model/series aircraft that can go fourth and fifth gen, give us that fighter capability, give us that attack capability that we need in the out years.”
Editor’s Note: One should also note that the F-35B can operate from the sea and return to the sea base.
Try doing that with an A-10.
05.17.2017
Video by Lance Cpl. Jamie Arzola
Headquarters Marine Corps
2017-05-07 By Robbin Laird
In a 2015 piece, I highlighted three historic firsts for Italy in the F-35 program delivered in 2015.
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. — At the beginning of the 20th Century, Italy was a pioneer in combat aviation.
Although different at the beginning of the 21st century, Italy has again emerged as an important player in military aviation.
They are key players in the two key 21st century multinational military aviation industrial coalitions, Eurofighter and F-35, as well as establishing a center of excellence for pilot training along with introducing one of the best 21st century trainers, the Aermacchi M-346…..
The Italians like the British are undergoing a double transition, whereby the Eurofighter is being modernized in two ways, namely, subsuming Tornado missions and replacing the Tornado and adding a new AESA radar to the airplane and introducing the F-35 to help shape joint force transformation.
The Italians have built a significant facility at Cameri air base to build the F-35, wings for F-35s and to provide sustainment for the operational fleet throughout the region as well.
The first Italian F-35 leaves the factory at Cameri in March 2015.
Earlier this Fall, the first F-35 came off of the Cameri line and flew successfully in Italian Air Space.
The facility was built in only four years and the first flight was ahead of schedule.
On Sept. 7, the first F-35A assembled outside the US, made its very first flight from Cameri airbase.
The aircraft, designated AL-1, is the first of eight aircraft currently being assembled at the Final Assembly and Check Out (FACO) facility at Cameri, in northwestern Italy.
During the flight, that lasted about 1,5 hours, the F-35A was escorted by a Eurofighter Typhoon.
As Secretary Wynne, the man who started the talks on building the Italian facility with the Italians put it with regard to the importance of the event:
“This flight makes the F-35 truly an international program.”
Lt. General Preziosa noted “the quality of the aircraft which has come off of the Italian line clearly demonstrates the competence of our industry and the importance of our strategic partnerships with U.S. and global defense industry. The fact that the Dutch Air Force will buy planes from the Italian line is also a recognition of the quality of the Italian effort……
After the first flight of an F-35 built outside of the United States, came the first flight of an Italian pilot of an F-35 at Luke AFB.
On November 5, 2015, Italian pilots flew a USAF F-35A and an Australian F-35A, becoming the first Italian pilots to fly the airplane….
Now the First F-35 built outside of the United States has been officially delivered to the Italian Air Force customer
Next up was another first, the first F-35 flown across the Atlantic.
On Feb. 5, 2016, the Italian Air Force’s first F-35, AL-1 with code “32-01” and markings of the 32 Stormo Wing landed at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, at the end of the JSF’s first ever transatlantic flight.
The aircraft was piloted by “Ninja,”an Italian Air Force test pilot, belonging to the Reparto Sperimentale Volo (Test Wing) from Pratica di Mare, and who had successfully completed his initial F-35 flight training at Luke AFB in November 2015.
To put this in perspective, the pilot had only 50 flight hours of F-35 flying experience.
And the Lightning II which Ninja flew across the North Atlantic in winter had only 15 flight hours on before he took off on his historic flight. 32-01was the first plane to came off of the Italian assembly line at Cameri Italy.
And this was done in the middle of winter, flying in and out of cloud layers over the turbulent North Atlantic against 120-knot headwinds. It was remarkable flying.
And now the latest first – the first F-35B ever built outside of the United States.
This past Friday, the first Italian built F-35B rolled out of the factory to a Ministry of Defence sponsored ceremony.
According to a press releases published on May 5, 2017:
The first Short Take-Off/Vertical Landing version of the F-35, or F-35B, assembled outside the United States rolled out of the Final Assembly and Check Out (FACO) facility here today.
The rollout exhibits the ongoing strong partnership between the Italian Ministry of Defense, industry partner Leonardo and Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT).
The Italian FACO is owned by the Italian Ministry of Defense and is operated by Leonardo in conjunction with Lockheed Martin with a current workforce of more than 800 skilled personnel engaged in full assembly of the Conventional Take-off/Landing F-35A and F-35B aircraft variants and F-35A wing production.
Gen. Claudio Graziano, Italian chief of defense, Gen. Carlo Magrassi, secretary general of defense/director of National Armament, Adm. Mathias Winter, deputy program executive officer at the F-35 Joint Program Office, Filippo Bagnato, Leonardo Aircraft Division’s Managing Director, and Doug Wilhelm, Lockheed Martin F-35 Program Management vice president, spoke at the milestone event.
“Italy is not only a valued F-35 program partner that has achieved many F-35 program ‘firsts’, but is also a critical NATO air component force, providing advanced airpower for the alliance for the coming decades,” Wilhelm said.
“Italian industry has participated in the design of the F-35 and Italian industry made components fly on every production F-35 built to date.”
BL-1’s first flight is anticipated in late August and it is programmed to be delivered to the Italian Ministry of Defense in November. In addition, two Italian F-35A aircraft will deliver from Cameri this year, the first by July and the second in the fourth quarter.
To date, seven F-35As have been delivered from the Cameri FACO; four of those jets are now based at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, for international pilot training and three are at Amendola Air Base, near Foggio on the Adriatic coast.
The Aeronautica Militare (Italian Air Force) has already flown more than 100 flight hours in its Amendola-based F-35As.
After a series of confidence flights from Cameri, an Italian pilot will fly their first F-35B jet to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, early in 2018 to conduct required Electromagnetic Environmental Effects certification.
The next Italian F-35B aircraft is scheduled for delivery in November 2018.
The Cameri FACO has the only F-35B production capability outside the United States and is programmed to produce a total of 30 Italian F-35Bs and 60 Italian F-35As, along with 29 F-35As for the Royal Netherlands Air Force, and retains the capacity to deliver to other European partners in the future.
The Italian FACO is also producing 835 F-35A full wing sets to support all customers in the program.
The FACO was selected by the U.S. Department of Defense in 2014 as the F-35 Lightning II Heavy Airframe Maintenance, Repair, Overhaul and Upgrade facility for the European region.
The 101-acre facility includes 22 buildings and more than one million square feet of covered work space, housing 11 assembly stations, and five maintenance, repair, overhaul, and upgrade bays.
The 22 Building F-35 Facility at Cameri: Credit: Italian Ministry of Defense
On September 7, 2015, the first Italian-produced F-35 built at the Cameri FACO made the first international flight in F-35 program history, and in February 2016, the F-35A made the program’s first trans-Atlantic crossing. In December 2016, the Italian Air Force’s first F-35s arrived at the first in-country base, Amendola AB.
The F-35 Lightning II is a 5th generation fighter, combining advanced stealth with fighter speed and agility, advanced mission systems, fully fused sensor information, network-enabled operations and cutting-edge sustainment.
Three distinct variants of the F-35 will replace the A-10 and F-16 for the U.S. Air Force, the F/A-18 for the U.S. Navy, the F/A-18 and AV-8B Harrier for the U.S. Marine Corps, and a variety of fighters for at least 11 other countries.
The Italian F-35As and Bs replace the legacy Panavia Tornado, AMX and AV-8B aircraft. More than 200 production F-35s have been delivered fleet-wide and have flown more than 90,000 flight hours.
The Italians will be getting an F-35B which former chief of staff of the Italian Air Force General Preziosa described in an interview with me as follows:
“We studied the issue carefully and for the kind of missions we face we needed the flexibility which the B can add to the fleet.
We need to go to the mission not the airfield. We will operate in many areas where there are only short runways; the B allows us to operate in those conditions.
We can mix the fleet and operate at sea on land, on our own ships or own others. It is the kind of flexibility, which we see as crucial to a 21st century setting.
I will give you an example of what we don’t want.
We planned to operate with the USMC in Afghanistan.
But we were three months later in the deployment than we intended because our Tornados could not operate in the same conditions as the USMC. We had to take three months to build out the air base from which we would operate with them.
Time is crucial to many of the missions in which we will be engaged. The Bs give me a more rapid insertion aircraft.”
https://www.sldinfo.com/a-21st-century-approach-to-airpower-the-italian-air-force-and-the-f-35/
And the coming of the first F-35B to the Italian forces will occur as the UK is standing up its new combat infrastructure at Marham for its F-35Bs.
This could provided significant cross learning between the two air forces and given the establishment of a training center at Marham, perhaps Italian pilots will learn in the UK rather than the US going forward.
Computer Generated Image of the outside of one of the facilities which is being built at RAF Marham, Norfolk, as part of a programme of works to prepare the station for the arrival of the F-35 Lightning II fleet in 2018.
In any case, the Italians have another first in aviation history under their belt generated by their first rate factory in Northern Italy.
When Secretary Wynne visited the factory last year this is what he had to say about the achievement:
Question: When you went to Cameri last month, what did you find?
Secretary Wynne: The ideas have been implemented.
They went from concept to reality in a very short period of time.
They have gone from dirt to a first rate 21st century aircraft facility in a very short period of time.
I have significant experience with international co-production programs, such as the F-16. I was the lead negotiator on the F-16. And frankly I never have been to a final assembly facility like the one in Italy abroad for a new build US combat aircraft.
This is unique and they have clearly delivered in terms of commitment and capability. It is a first rate facility.
I want to compliment here both the Italian side and the American side from a standpoint of they have constructed a first-rate quality facility.
The team has done a great job of energizing the Italian workforce of some 800 workers who have taken full possession of the responsibility to deliver on quality and meeting critical engineering standards.
Supervisory and configuration control rests with Lockheed, but the Italians do the rest.
There is real talent on the Italian side at the plant and clearly there is a two way tech transfer process.
The Italians have contributed significant innovations in the smart ways they construct, conceive and execute on wing production and those innovations are then available to the global enterprise for the F-35.
I met with the Italian managers who very impressive. They were enthusiastic and upbeat and they really know their stuff.
For me, this interaction was a real treat.
To see something go from negotiation to reality is very rewarding and you can see that at the Italian FACO. They are well aware that they are not just doing this for themselves but for the entire NATO and Allied coalition.
They are very proud of their broader contribution.
I think this is a program that is bringing about a bigger picture, and it’s not just in manufacturing.
The wellspring of cooperation is seeping into operations without a doubt.
Whereas we had a very good integrated fighting force with the F-16, and the F-15, the truth is that in the information age the F-35 enterprise is about sharing across the board.
Literally, everybody’s F-35 is going to be a node on the network, and I think they get that. They get where the operational construct is going and they’re proud to be a part.
https://www.sldinfo.com/keeping-a-promise-secretary-wynne-visits-the-faco-in-italy/
The photos in the slideshows are credited to the Italian Ministry of Defence.