41°39′16″N 012°26′42″E / 41.65444°N 12.44500°E
Pratica di Mare Air Base | |||||||||||||||
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| Summary | |||||||||||||||
| Airport type | Military | ||||||||||||||
| Operator | Aeronautica Militare | ||||||||||||||
| Location | Pomezia, Rome | ||||||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 42 ft / 13 m | ||||||||||||||
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Pratica di Mare Air Base (ICAO: LIRE) is a military airport of the Italian Air Force, located in Pomezia, Lazio, southwest of Rome. It was first opened in 1937, and in 1957, it was named after Colonnello Mario de Bernardi. It is one of the largest Italian air bases.
The base houses a "Dragon Star" Airborne Multi-Intelligence Laboratory (a modified Gulfstream III) used for ISTAR.[2]
- ^ "Airport information for LIRE". World Aero Data. Archived from the original on 2019-03-05.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) Data current as of October 2006. Source: DAFIF. - ^ "Lockheed Martin's "Dragon Star" Airborne Multi-Intelligence Laboratory at work". The Aviationist. June 7, 2013.
Known as "Dragon Star", the Airborne Multi-Intelligence Laboratory (AML) is a specially configured Gulfstream III (registered N30LX) transformed into a flying test bed with a wide array of sensors forseen [sic?] by a configuration developed by LM for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) persistent operations. Since it was deployed to Pratica di Mare, the aircraft has been used by the Italian Air Force in a live operational environment.