List of units of the Italian Army

Coat of Arms of the Italian Army

This page lists brigades, regiments, battalions, and other formations and units of the Italian Army since World War II grouped by their administrative corps. Units grouped under their operational headquarters are listed at Structure of the Italian Army.

The units are listed by order of precedence. After the unit's name, the date of foundation i.e. *1624 and the location it is currently based follows. Disbanded units follow below the active units.

Infantry Corps

Coat of Arms 1st Granatieri Regiment
Coat of Arms 1st Infantry Regiment
Coat of Arms 17th Infantry Regiment

Granatieri

History

The Granatieri (Grenadiers) are the Guard unit of the Italian Army.

Active units

Inactive units

Inactivated units of the Granatieri specialty:

Fanteria (Infantry)

Active units

Italian Infantry units are named for regions and cities. However the 5th, 13th, 17th, 20th, 21st, 60th, 66th, 67th, 87th, 114th, 120th, and 151st infantry battalions are named for battles, while the 52nd is named for the Alps and the 1st carries the name of Saint Justus of Trieste.

Inactive units

Inactivated units of the Infantry of the Line:

Bersaglieri

History

Main article: Bersaglieri

The Bersaglieri are an elite mechanized corps of the Italian Army.

Coat of Arms 3rd Bersaglieri Regiment
Coat of Arms 8th Alpini Regiment
Coat of Arms 183rd Paratroopers Regiment

Active units

Bersaglieri battalions, with the exception of the 1st and 11th battalion are named for battles in which the Bersaglieri participated. The 1st battalion is named for the founder of the Bersaglieri General Alessandro Ferrero La Marmora and the 11th is named for the island of Caprera, where Italy's national hero Giuseppe Garibaldi resided.

Inactive units

Inactivated units of the Alpini Bersaglieri specialty:

Alpini

History

Main article: Alpini

Alpini are the Italian Army's mountain infantry units.

Active units

Alpini battalions are, with the exception of the Monte Cervino battalion named after a mountain, and the Val Brenta, Val Chiese and Val Tagliamento battalions named for alpine valleys, named for cities and villages in the mountainous regions of Italy.

Inactive units

Inactivated units of the Alpini Infantry specialty:

Paracadutisti

History

Main article: Paracadutisti

Paracadutisti are the Italian Army's airborne forces.

Active units

Paratrooper battalions are named for battles, with the exception of the 2nd Battalion named after the location of the first Italian Paratrooper school. Paratrooper regiments carry the name of World War II airborne divisions.

Lagunari

Main article: Lagunari

Lagunari are the Italian Army's amphibious forces.

Cavalry Corps

Coat of Arms 2nd Cavalry Regiment
Coat of Arms 1st Tank Regiment

Cavalleria di Linea (Cavalry of the Line)

Active units

Cavalry of the Line regiments are named for cities in Italy. The only exception to this rule are the 1st and 3rd regiments named for regions in France, 2nd regiment named for a region in Italy, 8th regiment named for the Battle of Montebello and 19th regiment, which was given no honorific name.

Inactive units

Inactivated units of the Line Cavalry specialty:

Carristi (Tank Units)

Active units

Tank battalions are named for members of the speciality, who were awarded the Gold Medal of Military Valour for outstanding service in combat.

Inactive units

Artillery Corps

Coat of Arms 5th Artillery Regiment
Coat of Arms 121st Air-Defense Regiment
Coat of Arms 41st ISTAR Regiment

Artiglieria Terrestre (Field Artillery)

Active units

Each Field Artillery regiment consists of a HQ platoon, a target acquisition battery, a logistic support battery and an artillery group with either a command platoon and four firing batteries with 8x self-propelled howitzers each, or a command platoon and four firing batteries with 6x FH70 towed howitzers each.

Inactive units

Mountain Artillery:

Target Acquisition units:

Artiglieria Controaerei (Anti-aircraft Artillery)

Active units

Each Air-defense Artillery regiment consists of a HQ battery, a logistic support battery and an air-defense group.

Inactive units

Special Artillery Units

Engineer Corps

History

The Engineer Corps was founded on 11 June 1775 as the "Royal Corps of Engineers" ("Corpo Reale degli Ingegneri") of the army of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. With the integration of the engineer units of the Italian states conquered during the Second Italian War of Independence the Corps was elevated on 11 January 1861 to a service branch of the Army and became the "Arma del Genio". In 1915 when Italy entered World War I the Royal Italian Army fielded six regiments and two battalions:

During the war the Engineer Branch expanded and created new types of units:

Besides these also transport, ropeway, photography and poison gas companies were raised during the war.

In May 1940 when Italy entered World War II the branch fielded 18x engineer regiments, which contained a mix of sappers and signalers, and two mining, two bridging and one railroad engineer regiment. During the war each division received a mixed engineer battalion providing sappers and signalers. After the war the branch was rebuild as part of the Italian Army, fielding three pioneer, one bridging, one railroads and one fortification engineer battalion, along with mixed engineer battalions for the army's divisions and sapper companies for the army's brigades. In 1953 the signal units were split from the engineer branch to form their own service branch.

In 1975 all battalions of the engineer branch were given the name of lakes and rivers in Italy, while the companies of the branch continued to carry the name of the brigade they were subordinated too. The only exception to this naming rule were the three battalions of the 2nd Bridge Engineer Regiment and the two battalions of the Railroad Engineer Regiment. In 1975 the army fielded two mining, one sapper and 12x pioneer engineer battalions, along with 25x engineer companies in the army's brigades.

After the end of the Cold War the army renamed all battalions as regiments, although the composition of the units didn't change. In 1993 the brigade's engineer companies were merged with the brigade's signal battalions to create Command and Tactical Support Battalions. In 2001 the engineer companies of the reaming brigades were merged with the armies engineer battalions and each brigade received an engineer regiment.

Active units

Today the service branch is divided into four specialties: Engineers ("Guastatori"), Pioneers ("Pionieri"), Bridge Engineers ("Pontieri") and Railroad Engineers ("Ferrovieri"). All engineer battalions are named for rivers and lakes in Italy.

Inactive units

Inactivated units of the Engineer branch:

Signal Corps

History

Coat of Arms 11th Signal Regiment

The Signal branch of the army began as a speciality of the army's engineer branch, when in 1883 two telegraph battalions were raised and joined the 3rd Engineer Regiment. During World War I the speciality expanded rapidly and the war's end fielded 139x Telegraph Companies and 57x Telephone Companies. After the war a second Telegraph Regiment was raised and 26 Telegraph battalions were assigned to various commands of the army. During World War II the Signal Speciality raised a hundreds of units to join the various divisions of the Regio Esercito.

After the war the specialty was finally split from the Engineer Branch and on 16 May 1953 became a autonomous specialty of the army. Over the years the specialty grew and on 30 December 1997 it was finally elevated to a service branch of the army, with two specialities: Signal specialists and Electronic Warfare Specialists.

Active units

If not specified otherwise all Signal battalions below were activated in 1975. All signal battalions, with the exception of the 45th, 46th, 47th, 51st and 184th, were named after Italian mountain passes. The 45th and 46th were named after volcanoes, while the 47th and 184th were named after mountain massifs and the 51st kept the name of the Cold War Legnano division it once belonged to.

Inactive units

Inactivated units of the Signal branch:

Transport and Material Corps

Active units

Inactive units

Army Aviation Corps

History

In May 1951 the first aviation unit was created at the army's Artillery School in Rome. The first planes put in service were the Piper L21 A. By 1952 the army created four Light Plane Sections to support the four corps. In 1954 the first AB 47 helicopters arrived. On 1 June 1957 the training unit was moved to Viterbo and became the Army Light Aviation Instruction Center. By 1964 four squadrons of helicopters and 19 sections of light airplanes existed and the service was named Light Aviation of the Army ("Aviazione Leggera dell'Esercito", abbreviated as ALE)

By 1974 the L21 planes had been replaced by Cessna L19E planes, while the only helicopter in service was the AB 206 utility helicopter. With the army reform in 1975 the many light plane sections and helicopter sections were renamed squadrons and merged to form squadrons groups, equally in size to a battalion. The army also created four Army Light Aviation Groupings, equally in size to a regiment, for the three army corpses and the general staff. Squadrons groups were given the names of planets and constellations, while the groupings were given then names of stars.

After the Cold War the army reduced the number of squadrons groups, renamed the groupings to regiments and dropped the "Light" from the specialties name.

Active units

Coat of Arms 4th Army Aviation Regiment

Aviation regiments are named for stars, while Aviation Support Regiments are named for constellations. All squadrons groups (with the exception of "Giove" and "Mercurio") are named for constellations:

Inactive units

Inactivated units of the Aviation speciality:

See also

References

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