On July 13, a collaboration agreement was signed between the Italian Air Force and the Politecnico di Milano for the realisation of an applied research project for the "Advanced Planning of the Air Force Fleet (PAFAM)". The agreement, digitally signed by Col. Cristiano Realacci, Commander of the 1st Aircraft Maintenance Department in Cameri, and by Prof. Mara Tanelli, Professor of Systems and Control at the Politecnico di Milano, envisages a collaboration between the 2nd Division of the Air Force Logistics Command and the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering aimed at developing methodologies and approaches based on dynamic optimisation and machine-learning for the planning of maintenance and flight activities of the Air Force's fleets.
By bringing together the know-how of the Armed Forces Aircraft Maintenance Departments' personnel and the academic-scientific expertise of the Politecnico di Milano, the aim is to achieve an even more agile fleet management, capable of adapting to different operational requirements ranging from legacy systems to 4th and 5th generation systems, with an eye on the 6th generation, through fleet utilisation optimisation, decision support for the bodies responsible for the planning of the fleet activities and, lastly, exploratory and parametric studies on different scenarios.
In this context, a joint Air Force-Polimi Technical Project Committee will be established by Prof. Tanelli (Scientific Responsible for POLIMI) and her research team, T.Col. Andrea Mercurio (Scientific Responsible and Project Manager for the Air Force), Lt.Col. Roberto Valdambrini (Technical Project Manager for the Air Force), and teams of specialists and experts from all the Aircraft Maintenance Departments of the Air Force.
The project, selected and approved by the Defence General Staff as part of the Emerging and Disruptive Technologies initiatives, confirms the close collaboration between the two institutions, already established in 2020 with the signing of an initial framework agreement for the joint development of research and training activities, and which is renewed with this project, a concrete demonstration of the joint interest of the two institutions to work together for the country with a view to innovation and new technologies.
The 1st Aircraft Maintenance Department was established at the Cameri airport site on November 1, 1981 and placed under the 2nd Division of the Air Force Logistics Command. It represents the Air Force's main engineering-maintenance and logistics hub for high-performance "fast jet" aircraft.