Gallery: 80th SAR Center: ready and speedy

The fundamental task of the Italian Air Force’s 15th Wing is search and rescue (SAR) operations on ground and at sea, within Italy’s borders and extending to the territorial waters and international shipping lanes, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Additionally 15th Wing provides assistance during natural disasters and major incidents, where it works alongside other state organizations.

The Wing has five SAR Centers in order to provide total SAR coverage within Italy, the surrounding coastline and islands.One of the five Centers is the 80th SAR Center based on the island of Sardinia, on Decimomannu Air Base. Although the squadron’s name, SAR Center, is self-explanatory, it can be misleading: while its primary institutional mission is search and rescue, it also has a consolidated commitment to other activities that give it a truly multi-role nature, such as forest firefighting; the recovery of a radio/drone target, used by Air Force to train fighter pilots; and slow mover intercept (SMI).

For the 80th SAR Center, it is a daily, multifaceted task that, beyond its primary, purely military objectives, has a valuable impact on the island’s population and on those who navigate its waters. Numerous types of vessels sail the Mediterranean Sea daily; furthermore, as Sardinia is a prestigious tourist destination, countless pleasure boats frequent the Sardinian sea and ports.

The Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Roberto Basciu, clearly conveys his strong motivation and sense of belonging: “We have a remarkable legacy, a wealth of history, qualifications, experience, and types of rescue operations that probably no other organization in Italy can match; a wealth of experience serving the Italian Air Force but also the common citizen, because we are at the service of the country and our ultimate goal is to save human lives.

“Our pilots, flight operators, and air rescuers are capable of operating in any environment, on land and at sea, on rock faces or amidst raging waves. The air rescuers (ARS), in particular, are able not only to reach a person in any environment but also to assess their physical condition and provide first aid within the limits of their basic life support (BLS) training; some of them are also hyperbaric technicians.”

The primary task of the 80th SAR Center is to ensure SAR service for military flight crews due to the intensive flying activity of the local International Flight Training School (IFTS), where Italian and foreign (from a lot of countries) military pilots are trained; and for the aircrews engaged on live-fire air training exercises.

The Center is equipped with three Leonardo HH-139A/B helicopters; to increase SAR capability, the helicopters, in addition to being equipped with searchlights and forward-looking infrared (FLIR) sensors, also feature international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) catcher technology. This technology, having previously acquired the IMSI code of the missing person’s cell phone through the relevant authorities, allows the signal to be intercepted, pinpointing their position with extreme precision, even to within a few meters.

The alarm crew is on duty 24 hours a day and is qualified for any type of rescue; it is composed of a pilot, co-pilot, one or two on-board operators, and one or two ARS depending on the type of operation. The radio call sign of the 80th is ‘Speedy’ to summarize the spirit of the unit.

For years, the department has been providing ground support for firefighting at military ranges, given their vastness and ruggedness. This wealth of experience is put at the disposal of the Civil Protection Department from June to September to fight forest fires, a scourge that afflicts Sardinia every summer.

Therefore, during the summer months, two types of alerts are maintained, with two crews and helicopters equipped differently: one ready for 24-hour SAR rescue mission, the other for forest fire being equipped with a smaller fuel load so it can operate with the 910L bucket, only from dawn to dusk.