Page:NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE SURVEY 17; ITALY; SCIENCE CIA-RDP01-00707R000200080002-5.pdf/14

 APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200080002-5

weapons and underwater ordnance. Italy depends primarily on the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, France and West Germany for new designs in weapons but conducts engineering improvement, in some instances, on the foreign materiel it receives. The nation's limited capability in weapon research and development is more a matter of policy than from any specific technological shortcoming. Neither the government nor industry has attempted to develop a strong, broad-base indigenous research and development capability in air, ground, and naval weapons. However, the nation has a high competence in the manufacturing aspects of weaponry, particularly that on aircraft, army tanks, and ground transportation vehicles. Through corporate mergers and complex consortia with companies in other Western countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and West Germany, the Italians are using their production expertise to good advantage, while benefiting from the weapons design and development know-how of the other nations.

Aeronautical research is conducted by the aircraft companies, the University of Rome, and the Polytechnic Institute of Milan. Inadequate funding and the lack of suitable test facilities limit the Italian research and development effort. The overall research effort in aeronautics is managed by the Advisory Center for Studies and Research. The Aerospace Research Center of the University of Rome, located at Urbe Airport near Rome, is engaged in research on problems of high-speed aerodynamics, gas dynamics, plasma physics, and various space-related technologies.

The two automobile firms Fiat and Alfa Romeo are the principal aircraft engine manufacturers. Fiat is Italy's largest and it has traditionally relied upon licensing agreements to manufacture General Electric and Rolls Royce engines. Licensed production underway at these two firms includes, among other things, the GE J79 engines for the Lockheed F-104 fighter, the GE J85 for the Fiat G91 fighter, and the T58 engines for the SH-3D and Agusta-Bell 204 helicopters being manufactured for the Italian Navy.

The Italian aerospace industry, with a work force of over 23,000 employees, is among the 10 largest in the world, about equal in size to the aerospace industries of Sweden or Japan. Although Italy has become one of the largest helicopter manufacturers in Europe, most of the aircraft produced are of U.S. design. Italy's research and development capability is moderately strong in small transports but is weak in heavy transports, bomber aircraft, and advanced fighters.

Under government leadership, a new firm, Aeritalia, has been formed to consolidate the highly fragmented aerospace resources and capabilities of the country. To date, Aeritalia has absorbed the operations of the Aviation Division of Fiat, as well as a number of smaller enterprises. Fiat's Aviation Division has been involved in the production of the U.S.-designed Lockheed F-104 under license, and their own designed and developed G.91Y (Figure 4) fighter and G.222 transport aircraft (Figure 5). Other important development and production programs of Italian origin are the Macchi MB.326 jet training, light attack aircraft that are being exported widely, a variety of light civil and military aircraft, and helicopters. The largest designer and producer of helicopters is the Giovanni Agusta Aeronautical Construction Company, Inc. The AM-3 three-seat monoplane has been developed jointly by Aerfer Southern Aerospace Industry, Inc., (Aerfer) and Macchi Aeronautical

'''FIGURE 4. G.91Y fighter aircraft (U/OU)'''

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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200080002-5