For the first time in the history of the Atlantic Alliance, a non-American military unit has earned the stamp of approval from the most demanding special operations air force on the planet. The Italian Air Force’s 17° Stormo Incursori — the Raiders Wing, based at Furbara Military Airfield north of Rome — has been accredited by U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command for Global Access Operations. It is the first NATO unit outside the United States to achieve this certification, and it places Italy’s airborne special forces on equal operational footing with their American counterparts in the most austere and contested environments imaginable. The accreditation was not a courtesy. It was earned through a gruelling evaluation that began in July 2023 and culminated in nighttime field exercises in harsh, semi-permissive environments under the direct supervision of American instructors.

What Global Access Operations Means

In the language of special operations, Global Access Operations encompasses everything a force must do to open a door that an adversary has locked. Reconnoitre an airfield under hostile control. Secure a landing zone on an improvised runway in a jungle or a desert. Establish air traffic control where no tower exists. Enable the follow-on forces — the fighters, the transports, the logistics chain — to flow into a theatre that was, moments before, denied. The operators who perform this work are known as Combat Controllers. In the American system, they are among the most rigorously selected and trained personnel in any branch of service. The Italian Air Force’s Incursori have now demonstrated that they can do the same job, to the same standard, under American evaluation. The certification process was not a single test. It comprised documentary, procedural, and technical-operational assessments followed by field validation exercises. The final stage — the Combat Controller Skill Level 1 qualification — required the Italian operators to demonstrate landing zone assessment, terrain analysis, and air traffic control under nighttime conditions in harsh environments designed to replicate advanced force-projection scenarios.

A Continental Signal

The timing of this announcement is not accidental. Europe is in the midst of its most significant defence recalibration since the end of the Cold War. France has committed €36 billion to rearmament. Germany is rebuilding its Bundeswehr. The United Kingdom, Japan, and Italy are jointly developing a sixth-generation fighter under the GCAP programme. Within this broader European rearmament, the Italian accreditation sends a specific signal: Rome is not content to be a second-tier NATO contributor. The 17° Stormo Incursori has been training alongside American special operations forces for years — at exercises like Emerald Warrior and through exchange programmes at U.S. bases. But accreditation transforms a training relationship into an operational one. In practical terms, it means that in a future contingency — whether a NATO Article 5 response, a humanitarian crisis requiring airfield seizure, or a combined special operations campaign — Italian Raiders can be plugged directly into an AFSOC-led operation without additional qualification. They are interoperable at the highest level. The Italian Air Force described the achievement as certifying “full interoperability with the U.S. Armed Forces” and “a decisive step that strengthens the nation’s aerospace posture and increases Italy’s operational weight in global scenarios.” Beneath the diplomatic language lies a straightforward military fact: Italy now has operators who can open a contested airfield at night, in any climate, to a standard that satisfies the Americans. For a European air force, that is no small thing. Sources: The Aviationist, Europe Says, NATO NSHQ