Grazzanise Air Base (also known as "Carlo Romagnoli Airport") (

ICAO The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO, ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international a ...

: LIRM) is an

Italian Air Force , colours = , colours_label = , march = (Ordinance March of the Air Force) by Alberto Di Miniello , mascot = , anniversaries = 28 March ...

air base south of Grazzanise, in the

Province of Caserta The Province of Caserta ( it, Provincia di Caserta) is a province in the Campania region of southern Italy. Its capital is the city of Caserta, situated about by road north of Naples. The province has an area of , and had a total population of 9 ...

in the region of

Campania Campania (, also , , , ) is an administrative Regions of Italy, region of Italy; most of it is in the south-western portion of the Italian peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islands and the i ...

, located about west of

Caserta Caserta () is the capital of the province of Caserta in the Campania region of Italy. It is an important agricultural, commercial, and industrial ''comune'' and city. Caserta is located on the edge of the Campanian plain at the foot of the Camp ...

(the airport for this city), and northwest of

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. It has two, parallel runways (06/24) with the main, asphalt runway being 06R/24L, x , at elevation . The parallel concrete runway is for limited helicopter operations, as it has no taxiway connection to the rest of the base. There is a dispersal and

hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

area on the eastern end for nine aircraft, with larger maintenance hangars and parking areas at each end.

Navigation aid Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, ...

s sited at the field are

TACAN A tactical air navigation system, commonly referred to by the acronym TACAN, is a navigation system used by military aircraft. It provides the user with bearing and distance (slant-range or hypotenuse) to a ground or ship-borne station. It is a mor ...

and NDB.GRAZZANISE
World Aero Data/

DAFIF DAFIF () or the ''Digital Aeronautical Flight Information File'' is a comprehensive database of up-to-date aeronautical data, including information on airports, airways, airspaces, navigation data, and other facts relevant to flying in the entire ...

Units

The main base complex is about north-west of the airfield. It is the base for: * 9º Stormo ''

Francesco Baracca Count Francesco Baracca (9 May 1888 – 19 June 1918) was Italy's top fighter ace of World War I. He was credited with 34 aerial victories. The emblem he wore side by side on his plane of a black horse prancing on its two rear hooves ins ...

'' ( Italian entry) (9th Combat Search and Rescue Wing), part of Support and Special Forces Command * Flag of NATO

2nd NATO Signal Squadron (a component of the

NATO Communications and Information Agency The NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCI Agency) is NATO's technology and cyber hub. The Agency provides C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, and Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance; refer to Command and cont ...

, supporting the

Allied Joint Force Command Naples Allied Joint Force Command Naples (JFC Naples) is a NATO military command based in Lago Patria, in the Metropolitan City of Naples, Italy. It was activated on 15 March 2004, after effectively redesigning its predecessor command, Allied Forces Sou ...

)2ND NATO Signal Battalion Changes Command
USA-A Sgt. 1st Class Michael O’Brien, JFC Naples media release, 2020-01-08

Previous use

The air base was formerly the site of operations for squadrons equipped with the

North American F-86 Sabre The North American F-86 Sabre, sometimes called the Sabrejet, is a transonic jet fighter aircraft. Produced by North American Aviation, the Sabre is best known as the United States' first swept-wing fighter that could counter the swept-wing So ...

Fiat G.91 The Fiat G.91 is an Italian jet fighter aircraft designed and built by Fiat Aviazione, which later merged into Aeritalia. The G.91 has its origins in the NATO-organised NBMR-1 competition in 1953, which sought a light fighter-bomber (offici ...

and

Lockheed F-104 Starfighter The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is an American single-engine, supersonic air superiority fighter which was extensively deployed as a fighter-bomber during the Cold War. Created as a day fighter by Lockheed as one of the "Century Series" of fi ...

. An F-86 is mounted on a pole within the compound near the air base.

References

Italian airbases Airports in Italy Province of Caserta {{Italy-airport-stub