Maritime military arsenal of La Spezia

 military  Add category

 Upload a photo

Today [ edit | edit source ]


View of the Bay - Featured arsenal
In the postwar period and for the entire period of the Cold War 's arsenal has been the headquarters of the Second Marine Division . Currently employs approximately 1,000 civilian employees and 200 military personnel. It covers an area of nearly 85 hectares and inside there are about 13 miles of roads. The structure is still based on the original design of the nineteenth century . The development of the use in war of ' aviation has produced a revolution in the way we make war that has made ​​the passing of the arsenal of La Spezia, too exposed to air attack just because he was conceived in the absence of this current strategic component.
The fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of danger Soviet defense requirements have changed, shifting the focus towards the south, in the Mediterranean . This has resulted in a significant loss of importance of the base of La Spezia in favor of that of Taranto and also of Augusta and the only unit of the team remained in La Spezia are the frigate Maestrale of the 2nd squadron with the Vesuvius , the minesweepers Lerici of Force mine countermeasures and the unit multipurpose support Elettra .
Another difficulty arsenal is the inability to maintain adequate confidentiality: the interior of the arsenal is perfectly visible from the houses adjacent to the perimeter and the mountains of the western part of the gulf, although modern technology make obsolete these measures for the security. For these reasons, in addition to the closure of the training center recruits following the end of the military service binding, the activities and the personnel are currently in reduction, and are screened out the hypothesis of the transfer of numerous and large unused areas.

Next to the main entrance of the arsenal is the Naval Technical Museum , normally open to the public. The museum, established with the aim of keeping alive the traditions of the navy, includes more than 150 models of ships and boats, about 2,500 medals, memorabilia 6500, and 2000 documents, over 5000 technical books and historians.