The Guardia di Finanza (Financial Guard) is an Italian police force with a staff of around 65,000 personnel and an Air Service equipped with planes and helicopters. The fixed-wing component is all based at Pratica di Mare airport near Rome; the helicopter fleet is spread across two maneuver air sections and 13 air sections over 15 bases to cover the entire national territory.

The Air Section based in Rimini has received its three MH169s, replacing the old NH-500s, truly a sea change for the service.

The MH169s are equipped with state-of-the-art systems to carry out the primary police tasks assigned. The operational core is the Airborne Tactical Observation and Surveillance System (ATOS) configured with a MicroCASI-1920 hyperspectral sensor, a PhaseOne iXM-150F digital camera, a microTABI-640 thermal camera, and an ITRES hyperspectral sensor system; the helicopters also have radar and forward-looking infrared (FLIR), searchlight and hoist, and the IMSI/IMEI Catcher mobile device detection system.

The Air Section flies, day and night, over the large territory assigned, mainly patrolling the sea, often engaged in international flights over extra-territorial waters, and coastline. The Onboard System Operator (OSB) can track up to 50 targets consecutively, monitoring several at the same time in order to observe their movements. It is a complex job, made also in cooperation with the Guardia di Finanza’s vessels to intercept suspicious ships at sea.

Even though search and rescue (SAR) is a secondary task, the Air Section is ready to react to every emergency event and regularly trains with the Guardia di Finanza’s Alpine Rescue Units, as well as with the National Alpine Rescue Corps; the airborne phone location system has proven to be a very effective tool, if the alert for the SAR mission arrives quickly enough.

Even though search and rescue (SAR) is a secondary task, the Air Section is ready to react to every emergency event and regularly trains with the Guardia di Finanza’s Alpine Rescue Units

Here’s what the Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Maggio, had to say about the section’s rescue service: “Our helicopters are also equipped to carry out search and rescue missions, an activity secondary to the Corps’ strategic objectives but which is of particular importance given the Guardia di Finanza’s strong social and solidarity vocation.

“The region Emilia-Romagna, where we are based, in the last years suffered some natural disasters [such] as landslides and earthquakes, and an apocalyptic flood in May 2023. A terrible tragedy, not only at the critical moment but also in the days that followed. Just flying over expanses of residential destruction was agonizing, imagining what that mass of debris meant for so many families. Giving our contribution in saving lives, providing assistance to isolated people, evacuating families who had lost everything in an instant, was felt as a duty. The dramatic experience deeply touched all of us.

“That experience made me reflect on what we could have done to optimize our contribution, and the answer was to improve our operational readiness. Although I was aware that the Air Section does not have large numbers in terms of human resources, and that taking on this commitment would mean an increased workload, this assessment was shared and endorsed by all personnel.

“Now we are more ready than ever: thanks to the work of the maintenance team, we have extremely high machine availability; this is possible because, in addition to the usual daily morning inspection, in the evening they close operations by not only placing the helicopters in the hangar after refueling them, but also inspecting them again to ensure they are ready for operation. This drastically reduces the time it takes to get into the air.

Now we are more ready than ever

“As always, we are on duty with personnel at the base from dawn to dusk. During other hours, we are on call and can arrive at the base very quickly.”