The Italian nuclear weapons program was an effort by

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 ...

to develop

nuclear weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bom ...

s in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Italian scientists like Enrico Fermi and

Edoardo Amaldi Edoardo Amaldi (5 September 1908 – 5 December 1989) was an Italian physicist. He coined the term "neutrino" in conversations with Enrico Fermi distinguishing it from the heavier "neutron". He has been described as "one of the leading nuclear ...

had been at the forefront of the development of the technology behind nuclear weapons, but the country was banned from developing the technology at the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. After abortive proposals to establish a multilateral program with

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

Allies in the 1950s and 1960s, Italy launched a national nuclear weapons program. The country converted the

light cruiser A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to th ...

and developed and tested a

ballistic missile A ballistic missile is a type of missile that uses projectile motion to deliver warheads on a target. These weapons are guided only during relatively brief periods—most of the flight is unpowered. Short-range ballistic missiles stay within the ...

called Alfa. The program ended in 1975 upon Italy's accession to the

Non-Proliferation Treaty The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation ...

. Currently, Italy does not produce or possess nuclear weapons but takes part in the NATO

nuclear sharing Nuclear sharing is a concept in NATO's policy of nuclear deterrence, which allows member countries without nuclear weapons of their own to participate in the planning for the use of nuclear weapons by NATO. In particular, it provides for the ar ...

program, hosting

B61 nuclear bomb The B61 nuclear bomb is the primary thermonuclear gravity bomb in the United States Enduring Stockpile following the end of the Cold War. It is a low to intermediate-yield strategic and tactical nuclear weapon featuring a two-stage radiation im ...

s at the

Aviano Aviano ( fur, Davian; cim, Pleif) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Pordenone at the foot of the Dolomites mountain range in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, northern Italy. Aviano is home to the C.R.O. (Oncological Referral Center), a cancer rese ...

and

Ghedi Air Base Ghedi Air Base ( it, Base aerea di Ghedi, ) is a base of the Italian Air Force in Ghedi, about 15 kilometres from Brescia, northern Italy. It is home to the 6º Stormo of the Italian Air Force with the 102º Gruppo (''Papero''), il 154º Gruppo ...

Background

Italian physicists, like the

Via Panisperna boys Via Panisperna boys (Italian: ''I ragazzi di Via Panisperna'') is the name given to a group of young Italian scientists led by Enrico Fermi, who worked at the Royal Physics Institute of the University of Rome La Sapienza. In 1934 they made the ...

led by Enrico Fermi, had been at the forefront of the development of

nuclear physics Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies the ...

. Indeed, some, like Fermi, took part in the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

and the creation of the first

during the

. At the end of the war, the Italian Armed Forces wished to have nuclear capability. The

Italian Army "The safeguard of the republic shall be the supreme law" , colors = , colors_labels = , march = ''Parata d'Eroi'' ("Heroes's parade") by Francesco Pellegrino, ''4 Maggio'' (May 4) ...

was particularly keen to acquire nuclear weapons, seeing them primarily in a tactical role. The Army was confronted with defending mountain passes, which would channel any Warsaw Pact advance, and therefore made ideal targets for nuclear weapons. However, 1947 Peace Treaty banned the country from developing its own nuclear weapons. In the new geopolitical situation of the emerging Cold War, Italy created a political strategy that relied on multilateralism, principally through a close relationship with the United States, membership of

and greater European integration, for its defence. A similar attitude was taken for its nuclear weapons program.

Initial US deployments

The first nuclear weapons deployed on Italian soil were two battalions

MGR-1 Honest John The MGR-1 Honest John rocket was the first nuclear-capable surface-to-surface rocket in the United States arsenal.The first nuclear-authorized ''guided'' missile was the MGM-5 Corporal. Originally designated Artillery Rocket XM31, the first uni ...

and MGM-5 Corporal missiles in September 1955, In time of war, they were to be used to slow the advance of enemy forces attacking across the Austrian and Yugoslavian borders, providing the Italian Army with sufficient time for a full mobilisation. They were supported by other nuclear weapons, including

Atomic demolition munition Atomic demolition munitions (ADMs), colloquially known as nuclear land mines, are small nuclear explosive devices. ADMs were developed for both military and civilian purposes. As weapons, they were designed to be exploded in the forward battle ...

s. They were followed by 90 MIM-14 Nike Hercules surface-to-air missiles with

W31 The W31 was an American nuclear warhead used for two US missiles and as an atomic demolition munition. The W31 was produced from 1959, with the last versions phased out in 1989. All versions were roughly the same dimensions and weight: in di ...

warheads in 1960. However, these were not Italian weapons; the United States Army maintained ownership, custody and control of all these systems. For Italy, this was insufficient. The country argued for greater involvement, with

Minister of Defence A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...

Paolo Emilio Taviani Paolo Emilio Taviani (6 November 1912 – 18 June 2001) was an Italian political leader, economist, and historian of the career of Christopher Columbus. He was a partisan leader in Liguria, a Gold Medal of the Resistance, then a member of the C ...

saying on 29 November 1956 that the Italian government was trying to persuade their "Allies to remove the unjustified restrictions regarding the access of NATO countries to new weapons." The decision by Switzerland on 23 December 1958 to pursue a nuclear weapons program put an additional impetus on Italy. Pressure was applied on the United States to provide additional nuclear weapons. On 26 March 1959, an agreement was signed under which the

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

received 30

PGM-19 Jupiter The PGM-19 Jupiter was the first nuclear armed, medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) of the United States Air Force (USAF). It was a liquid-propellant rocket using RP-1 fuel and LOX oxidizer, with a single Rocketdyne LR79-NA (model S-3D) r ...

intermediate range ballistic missile An intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) is a ballistic missile with a range of 3,000–5,500 km (1,864–3,418 miles), between a medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) and an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Classifying ba ...

s (IRBMs) to operate from Gioia del Colle Air Base. The first missiles arrived on 1 April 1960. This time missiles were operated by an Italian brigade, the 36ª Aerobrigata, and the Americans provided the warheads under a dual key arrangement ( it, doppia chiave, link=no), which led the Italian government to believe it had greater control over the deterrent, and thus more power in NATO. The new missiles could be used "for the execution of NATO plans and policies in times of peace as well as war". The deployment did not last long, however, and, on 5 January 1963, the United States announced that they would withdraw the Jupiter missiles as a consequence of the Cuban Missile Crisis, under an agreement with the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

that the United States would withdraw its missiles from Italy and Turkey in return for the Soviet Union withdrawing its missiles from Cuba. The decision was approved by the Italian government and the missile brigade was deactivated on 1 April 1963.

Multilateral Force

In the meantime, Italy explored working develop a European nuclear force within the NATO, the Multilateral Force (MLF). MLF was a concept promoted by the United States to place all NATO nuclear weapons not operated by their own services under joint control by American and European forces, with a dual-key arrangement. For the United States, the MLF was an attempt to balance the desire of other members of NATO to play a role in nuclear deterrence with their interest in bringing existing and potential Western nuclear arsenals under the umbrella of a more cohesive NATO alliance. The program built on previous discussions between European nations on a collaborative nuclear program. Italy, France and Germany had worked on a joint nuclear deterrent, but these were curtailed in 1958 by Charles de Gaulle's desire for an independent French deterrent. The MLF was pursued by the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and formed a fundamental part of the

Nassau Agreement The Nassau Agreement, concluded on 21 December 1962, was an agreement negotiated between President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, and Harold Macmillan, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, to end the Skybolt Crisis. A series of meet ...

between the United States and the United Kingdom, and the attempted accession of the United Kingdom to the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1961. Under the MLF, the United States proposed that various NATO countries operate the

UGM-27 Polaris The UGM-27 Polaris missile was a two-stage solid-fueled nuclear-armed submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM). As the United States Navy's first SLBM, it served from 1961 to 1980. In the mid-1950s the Navy was involved in the Jupiter missi ...

IRBM on seaborne platforms, both nuclear submarines and surface ships. The Italian Navy proposed a nuclear powered submarine and a conversion of a cruiser. Announced in July 1959, the program paralleled similar work in the US. The Navy took the

out of service and rebuilt the ship between 1957 and 1961 as a guided missile cruiser with launchers for four Polaris missiles. The successful test of the missiles took place in September 1962. Shortly afterwards, in December 1962, Italian Minister of Defence Giulio Andreotti officially asked the United States for assistance in developing nuclear propulsion for its fleet. The Italian government saw the growth of the movement to halt the proliferation of nuclear weapons as a major challenge to its nuclear program. At the

Eighteen Nation Committee on Disarmament The Eighteen Nation Committee on Disarmament (ENCD) was sponsored by the United Nations in 1961. The ENCD considered disarmament, confidence-building measures and nuclear test controls. With the failure of its multilateral efforts, Italy looked again at creating an independent deterrent. Italy had experience with nuclear technology, with a well developed

nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced ...

industry with BWR,

Magnox Magnox is a type of nuclear power/production reactor that was designed to run on natural uranium with graphite as the moderator and carbon dioxide gas as the heat exchange coolant. It belongs to the wider class of gas-cooled reactors. The n ...

, and PWR technologies, as well as the 5MW RTS-1 'Galileo Galilei' test reactor at CAMEN ( it, Centro Applicazioni Militari Energia Nucleare, link=no, Center for Military Applications of Nuclear Energy). It also had a large number of nuclear capable aircraft, including the

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 ...

, and was developing the

Panavia Tornado The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine, variable-sweep wing multirole combat aircraft, jointly developed and manufactured by Italy, the United Kingdom and West Germany. There are three primary Tornado variants: the Tornado IDS ( in ...

with nuclear strike in mind.

Alfa

In 1971, the Italian Navy began an ingenious program to develop

s called Alfa. Officially the project was termed as a development effort for a study on efficient solid-propellant rockets for civil and military applications. It was planned as a two-stage rocket and could be carried on submarines or ships. Ever since 27 March 1960, when Admiral Pecori Geraldi had argued that a seaborne nuclear force was the most resistant to attack, the navy had looked for an opportunity to take on a nuclear role. Alfa was long and had a diameter of . The first stage of the Alfa was long and contained of solid rocket fuel. It supplied a thrust of for a duration of 57 seconds. It could carry a warhead for a range of , placing European Russia and Moscow in range from the

Adriatic Sea The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) to t ...

. After the first stage motor was fired eleven times in static tests, three test missiles with inert second stages were successfully launched at Salto di Quirra in

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...

, the last on 6 April 1976. Sentinel-2_and_vega

However, the combination of high costs of over 6 billion lira and a changing political climate meant that the project was doomed. In addition, there was an increasing risk of nuclear escalation outside Europe and domestic pressure for Italy to play its part in reducing the nuclear tension. These combined with pressure from the United States led to Italy abandoning its nuclear weapons program and ratifying the

Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation ...

on 2 May 1975. The technological heritage of Alfa is today in light solid-propellant space launchers, like the current

Vega Vega is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra. It has the Bayer designation α Lyrae, which is Latinised to Alpha Lyrae and abbreviated Alpha Lyr or α Lyr. This star is relatively close at only from the Sun, a ...

rocket. In more recent years, the country, working as part of the European Space Agency, has demonstrated the

reentry Atmospheric entry is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. There are two main types of atmospheric entry: ''uncontrolled entry'', such as the ...

and landing of a capsule called IXV.

Popular attitudes to nuclear weapons

In the 1950s, the Italian population was generally considered ignorant on matters of the high politics of the recently emerged

Atomic Age The Atomic Age, also known as the Atomic Era, is the period of history following the detonation of the first nuclear weapon, The Gadget at the ''Trinity'' test in New Mexico, on July 16, 1945, during World War II. Although nuclear chain reaction ...

. While there was a strong awareness of the risk of nuclear war and a desire for disarmament, this was not widely articulated and public discourse was rare. The attitude towards the basing of nuclear weapons on Italian soil was generally on political lines, with followers of Christian Democracy being positive and supporters of the

Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy. The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) ...

being against. The position of the other parties varied, A broader movement for

nuclear disarmament Nuclear may refer to: Physics Relating to the nucleus of the atom: *Nuclear engineering *Nuclear physics *Nuclear power *Nuclear reactor *Nuclear weapon *Nuclear medicine *Radiation therapy *Nuclear warfare Mathematics * Nuclear space * Nuclea ...

, and against

nuclear weapons testing Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine nuclear weapons' effectiveness, yield, and explosive capability. Testing nuclear weapons offers practical information about how the weapons function, how detonations are affected by ...

, emerged in the mid-1950s. A combination of Christian pacifists and marxists, many of whom were not affiliated to the main political parties, collaborated in a series of publications and demonstrations. At the same time, Italian physicists like

spoke out against the use of nuclear research in war, particularly through multinational action like the

Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs is an international organization that brings together scholars and public figures to work toward reducing the danger of armed conflict and to seek solutions to global security threats. It was f ...

. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, programs and magazine articles on the dangers of nuclear war remained popular and the level of discussion on the issue increased. The creation of an Italian nuclear deterrent was not widely supported, and when new US weapons were deployed, the government kept them as quiet as possible to avoid unleashing a backlash.

Nuclear weapons in Italy since 1975

Since ratifying the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and halting its own program, Italy has continued to host nuclear weapons on its soil. The country remained part of the

program and has been used by the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

for their deployment of the BGM-109G Ground Launched Cruise Missile,

MGM-52 Lance The MGM-52 Lance was a mobile field artillery tactical surface-to-surface missile (tactical ballistic missile) system used to provide both nuclear and conventional fire support to the United States Army. The missile's warhead was developed at La ...

tactical ballistic missile A tactical ballistic missile (TBM), or battlefield range ballistic missile (BRBM), is a ballistic missile designed for short-range battlefield use. Typically, range is less than . Tactical ballistic missiles are usually mobile to ensure sur ...

and W33, W48 and

W79 The W79 Artillery-Fired Atomic Projectile (AFAP), also known as the XM753 (Atomic RA) was an American nuclear artillery shell, capable of being fired from any NATO howitzer e.g. the M115 and M110 howitzer. Produced in two models, the enhanced ...

artillery shells. The Italian Army's 3rd Missile Brigade "Aquileia" was trained to use the munitions. The country has been an active participant in the program, for example, taking a lead in March 1979 in the deployment of what would become the BGM-109G ahead of the other NATO members. By the early 1980s several US nuclear weapons units were deployed in Italy in support of the Italian Armed Forces, as follows: * 599th US Army Artillery Group ** 28th Field Artillery Warhead Support Group ** 62nd Engineer Atomic Demolition Munitions Company ** 69th Ordnance Company, Special Ammunition, Direct Support * US Air Force 183rd Munition Support Squadron

s were also stationed in Italy. It is believed that the

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

could use these weapons in case of war: in 2005, former Italian President Francesco Cossiga stated that Italy's plans of retaliation during the Cold War consisted of targeting nuclear weapons on

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

and

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

in case the Soviet Union waged nuclear war against NATO. He acknowledged the presence of U.S. nuclear weapons in Italy, and speculated about the possible presence of British and French nuclear weapons on Italian soil. During the 1980s, however, there was an increasing popular movement against nuclear weaponry. At the same time as the

Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp was a series of protest camps established to protest against nuclear weapons being placed at RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire, England. The camp began on 5 September 1981 after a Welsh group, Women for Life ...

was being set up in Berkshire, England, 60,000 people marched from

Perugia Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and pa ...

to Assisi against nuclear war on 27 September. The following month, between 200,000 and 300,000 people marched in Rome. The movement was politically broad, attracting mainly young people, and grew rapidly. The march on 22 October 1982 attracted between half a million and one million supporters. The movement received another boost in 1987 when, in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster, a series of

referendums A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...

demonstrated popular opinion against

. The United States Army removed their last nuclear weapons from Italy in 1992 when they withdrew the last Lance missile. However, for many people, this did not go far enough. In March 2008, 67,248 Italian citizens signed a petition to declare the country a

nuclear-free zone A nuclear-free zone is an area in which nuclear weapons (see nuclear-weapon-free zone) and nuclear power plants are banned. The specific ramifications of these depend on the locale in question. Nuclear-free zones usually neither address nor pro ...

. In June, senior politicians across the political spectrum,

Massimo D'Alema Massimo D'Alema (; born 20 April 1949) is an Italian politician and journalist who was the 53rd prime minister of Italy from 1998 to 2000. He was Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2008. D'Alema also serv ...

Arturo Parisi Arturo Parisi (born 13 September 1940) is an Italian politician, leader of the Ulivist faction of the Democratic Party and a four-time member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies. He was also minister of defence in the cabinet of Prime Minister ...

, Gianfranco Fini, Giorgio La Malfa and Francesco Calogero, signed a statement in favour of disarmament. As of 2015, there were between 70 and 90

s mod 3, mod 4 and mod 7 stored in two locations, 50 at the Aviano Air Base, and from 20 to 40 at the

. They can be delivered by USAF General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcons of

31st Fighter Wing The 31st Fighter Wing (31 FW) is a United States Air Force unit assigned to the United States Air Forces in Europe major command and the Third Air Force. It is stationed at Aviano Air Base, Italy, a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) base r ...

that are based at Aviano and Italian

s of 6º Stormo Alfredo Fusco that are based at Ghedi. The Tornado fleet will potentially be replaced by

Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is an American family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather Stealth aircraft, stealth multirole combat aircraft that is intended to perform both Air superiority fighter, air superiority and attack ...

, which is expected to be certified nuclear-capable with the B-61 by 2026.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{refend Nuclear weapons programs Military history of Italy Nuclear technology in Italy