From the Grifo to the new generation Samp/T, the Italian Army focuses on anti-missile defence: here's how
Both systems are characterised by high tactical mobility, flexibility and modularity of use, and represent a response to the need to ensure integrated multi-level (layered) and omnidirectional (360°) defence based on the availability of multiple, complementary and fully interoperable systems, including within national and NATO air and missile defence networks
by Andrea Carli
Key points
The Italian Army is equipped with new air defence missile systems. In fact, the first items of the Samp/T New Generation and Grifo surface-to-air missile weapon systems were delivered to the Santa Barbara barracks in Sabaudia (LT), the headquarters of the Counter-Aircraft Artillery Command. The handover ceremony was attended by Undersecretary of State for Defence Isabella Rauti, Army Chief of Staff General Carmine Masiello, MBDA Italy CEO and Director General Lorenzo Mariani, and Eurosam CEO Anne Diaz de Tuesta. The handover ceremony included a short deployment simulation.
Both systems are characterised by high tactical mobility, flexibility and modularity of use, and represent a response to the need to ensure an integrated multi-level (layered) and omnidirectional (360°) defence based on the availability of multiple systems, complementary to each other and fully interoperable, also within the framework of national and NATO air and missile defence networks.
The new generation of Samp/T
The SAMP/T NG, produced by the Eurosam industrial joint venture, formed by MBDA Italy, MBDA France and Thales, is a medium-range system that can also be used against ballistic missiles (Medium Range Air Defence and Ballistic Missile Defence), the result of decades of Italian-French cooperation that also included the previous version of the Samp/T, already used by the Army and of which the new system is the evolution. Developed as part of a programme that began in 2021, the SAMP/T NG, an Army memo highlighted, 'has superior performance, thanks to the intercept capability of the new Aster B1NT missile, over 150 km, and Leonardo's Kronos grand mobile high power radar, which guarantees the detection of the threat at a distance of over 350 km, thus increasing the protection of the Forces from modern air and missile threats, including ballistic targets'.
Il Grifo
The Grifo, on the other hand, developed and produced by MBDA in Italy as part of a programme started in 2019, which integrates the new CAMM-ER missile, will provide Force protection in the short-range segment (Short Range Air Defence), thanks to its capabilities to engage and neutralise a plurality of threats from the 3rd dimension, including fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft (including drones), cruise missiles and anti-radar missiles.
