The recent agreement signed between ENAV and the Italian Air Force is another joint initiative out of a series of specific joint projects, national and international, on the technological, operational and regulatory level for air navigation. What are the future scenarios?

A number of times I have been able to describe the efforts made by the Air Force to collaborate with all the major protagonists, institutional and otherwise, that make a vital contribution to the development of aviation in the context of a "national system".
I would like to thank Cleared for the space dedicated today to this sector, strategic for the nation. The recent signature on the Act of Understanding between the Air Force and ENAV is one of the great successes of the various types of collaboration by the Air Force, and forms the basis for developing a number of coordinated activities considered to be of great benefit for the growth of the country.
These activities will cover all the areas where the Air Force, as an air space user, supplier of air navigation services (ANS) and regulator of military air traffic, and ENAV, as the main supplier of ANS in Italy, are involved in a daily search for solutions to ensure that the valuable and limited resource of air space is used in the best way. Future scenarios are full of new challenges, and the dynamic nature of the changes regarding safety and transport require more new synergies and systems-based responses. I would like to highlight the examples of the major modernization programmes such as the Single European Sky (SES) for the regulatory and technological aspect, with the Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR). The latter is of special importance since it will radically transform the technology currently utilized to seek new points of reference in terms of capacity, the efficiency of the resources used and respect for the environment.
In just a few years, the current technological system will give way to new technologies for which Italy is already a reference point on the industrial side. The Act of Understanding has the aim of facing and jointly responding to these new challenges, highlighting the resources that the nation already has, and where it intends to maintain the highest possible standards on the international level.
I am therefore very much in favour of the concept of "National systems-based interoperability", which is a concrete way of innovating, exchanging data and trying new synergies, thus producing responses to be shared in the technological and regulatory world of ATM (Air Traffic Management). This project, already being developed, will be a key tool for the management of air space in situations of natural and/or manmade emergencies (natural disasters/events, major political and social events, social emergencies etc.) and for the study and experimentation of new concepts such as the integration of Remote Piloted Aircraft (RPA) in non-segregated air spaces.
In the weather meteorological sector, we are considering the possibility, with a synergic approach in the context of technical and scientific collaboration already started in the aeronautical meteorology sector, of achieving new capacities for providing advance design weather services at the performance standards required by the Single European Sky.

Compared to International framework, are ENAV and the Air Force still a model of full cooperation between the military and civilian sector in the management of national air space? 

In this sector, too, I would like to point out the high level of system integration achieved by the two players in their relationship with corresponding European partners. The Italian model of civilian and military cooperation in the management of air space in terms of Airspace Management (ASM) continues to represent a quality factor in the European scenario, and is now considered an example of how to achieve an effective harmonization of the need of defence and safety with the growth of commercial traffic.
The principle underlying the system is the need to achieve the greatest degree of flexible use of national air space, in connection with the Functional Air Space Block (FAB) BLUE MED, in which Italy is a fundamental component. Anticipating the Single European Sky (SES), the Italian system has been structured on three levels of strategic civilian and military coordination: strategic for the design of air space; pre-tactical for the assignment of air space on the day before the flight and tactical for the dynamic assignment on the same day as the flight. The latter level of collaboration is the distinctive factor qualifying the Italian system with respect to other European organizations.
The location of the Services for Coordination and Control - Air Force (SCC-Air Force) in the same regional operations room as the civilian Air Control Center (ACC) in Milan, Abano Terme, Brindisi and Rome ensures constant synergy between military and civilian air traffic control personnel, who operate with advanced interoperability and the dynamic exchange of data. This ensures that the system uses procedures allowing the full occupation and reassignment of air space on a completely shared basis.
In this sector, too, technology is the characteristic element and the instrumental factor. The joint Air Force-ENAV development of procedures, rules and facilities that can dialogue together on an increasingly dynamic and efficient basis is a key factor for the governance of transition from the current air space management system, based on flight time, to a system taking into account the best routes of the aircraft, with the completion of the modernization process according to the concept of aircraft performance.
Another example is the cooperation between ENAV and the Air Force in the weather sector, which produces excellent synergy for optimizing the investments on both sides, with benefits for the national community in terms of services and costs. In all this, the Air Force is determined to continue to invest resources to maintain the position of excellence achieved in cooperation between the civilian and military sector.

What is your opinion on a National Aeronautical System plan for the development of institutional initiatives or projects with high industrial value? 

The Air Force has always offered extensive collaboration for all the institutional initiatives or projects aimed at developing the National Aeronautical System with high industrial value. I can mention the added value provided by innovation and research, which is now globally acknowledged to be a multiplier factor for a country's growth, especially in the aerospace sector in which the technological element is the characteristic factor.
In this regard, I would like to mention some examples of collaboration under way and which are already giving the first positive results. These include the collaboration in the development of systems for low visibility Remote Piloted Aircraft (RPA), with completely Italian technology, with close synergy between Italian industry, ENAV and the Air Force in order to develop the most recent technologies thanks to the sharing of infrastructures, regulatory protocols, outfitting and simulation systems.
These research and development activities can form the basis for creating a European product with adequate economies of scale allowing for production with low cost levels. A concrete example of projects being studied is the collaboration for the Taranto Grottaglie Airport, where the authorities have announced the intention to create a logistical support platform for a high technology centre for the study and testing of aeronautical systems and projects such as RPAs and/or other projects related to the SESAR programme for the development of ground equipment. Only a systems-based approach can respond to complex problems like the ones in the aerospace sector, and the Air Force has always been willing to contribute to supporting growth and expanding skills in the aeronautical and aerospace sectors.

The European platforms for the next 20 years in the aeronautical sectors of communications, navigation and surveillance will involve considerable innovations for the civilian and military industries, as well as the world service providers and all the aeronautical operators. How is the Air Force, with its men and equipment, organizing to best support innovations in the near future?

The Air Force, by its very nature, is driven by innovations. Technology, progress and environmental compatibility are in the DNA of the women and men in uniform, and are a constant part of any development programme.
The rate of change, thanks to the computerization of systems and processes, has considerably accelerated in recent times, and the great challenges of these recent years is to keep up with, or even anticipate events. There are no longer exclusive "areas"; "interoperability" and "dual use"are today's key-words, and any facilities or organizations in the country have to operate in synergy with all the others. But every innovation must be backed by an organization that can anticipate the future.
The new organizational model of defence, in the communications, navigation and surveillance sectors has this very aim. While maintaining the hierarchical structure of the military organization, research, study, management skills, flexibility of structures and human resources, and the capacity of long term and concrete planning are all key elements for being proactive in innovations, and above all for Italy's participation in this development. However, it will be necessary to review the form of participation by the Armed Forces, the costs incurred to keep up with programmes for modernization and enhancement required by the major projects for technological development such as SESAR, technological pillar of SES.
The economic impact has already been assessed as negative for the defence and safety related components both for ground and on-board systems, and can no longer be sustained by defence funding alone. A regulatory instrument is therefore needed to ensure covering the full costs incurred, in order to safeguard, in a balanced way, the country's need to grow and progress in the ATM sector with the safety and defence factors, understood as possibilities of access to air space, the effectiveness of military operations and complete interoperability with the civilian sector.

The supply of air navigation services for the airports of Ciampino and Verona will soon pass from the Air Force to ENAV. What will this transfer involve?

The transfer of Air Navigation Services (ANS) from the Air Force to ENAV at the airports of Ciampino and Verona and subsequently those of Rimini, Brindisi and Treviso S. Angelo is a  part of a natural process of the transition of interests from the military to the civilian sphere. The process started in the previous decade, when the Air Force identified some military airports that were no longer of strategic interest for defence, sustaining the natural evolution of some military airports with significant potential for civilian transport.
This activity is part of a strategic transport plan for Italy, with the continuous and constant links between the Air Force, ENAC and ENAV. The Air Force thus continues to play a role in guaranteeing flight safety and facilitating the development of aviation in the context of the increasing interoperability between civil and military aviation; using the same air space, they can be considered as two sides of the same coin. They share and interact in this resource, though with a different purpose. In any case, the transition of responsibility of the ANS for all the airports already granted by the Air Force should take place as soon as possible, including all the services they require in order to guarantee on a continuous basis the quality and safety indispensable for the operations of these airports.