– BBC – Italy’s navy has rescued 1,123 people from inflatable boats in the space of 24 hours, as clandestine migration from North Africa reaches record levels.

– Press TV – As pro-democracy protests rage in Libya, the Italian navy assault ship San Giorgio has prepared to evacuate Italians and people of other nationalities in the North African country’s port city of Misrata.

Associated Press – Naval patrols fail to deter pirates

Rear Admiral Giovanni Gumiero is going on a pirate hunt.

From the deck of an Italian destroyer cruising the pirate-infested waters off Somalia’s coast, he has all the modern tools at his fingertips – radar, sonar, infrared cameras, helicopters, a cannon that can sink a ship 10 miles, or 16 kilometers, away – to take on a centuries-old problem that harks back to the days of schooners and eye patches.

Aviation Week – Air-independent propulsion (AIP) submarines have started to prowl the Mediterranean, with Italian Type U 212 boats having reached operational capability and German boats of the same type deploying to the region in support of NATO’s Operation Active Endeavor.
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Aljazeera – Italy is sending Marines to Lebanon for peacekeeping.
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Sea Power – In an age characterized by missiles guided by sophisticated electronic seekers and a constellation of satellites, an Italian arms company is taking a different approach to precision munitions. To increase the accuracy of widely used medium-caliber naval guns, Oto Melara is employing the concepts of low drag and high speed with a new munition called Ammunition Reduced Time-of-Flight (ART).
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