Italian Army

The Italian Army (Italian: Esercito Italiano; EI) is the land defence force of the Italian Armed Forces of the Italian Republic. The army's history dates back to the unification of Italy in the 1850s and 1860s. The army fought in colonial engagements in China, Libya (1911–1912), northern Italy against the Austro-Hungarian Empire during World War I, Abyssinia before World War II, and in World War II in Albania, Greece, north Africa, Russia and Italy itself. During the Cold War the army prepared itself to defend against a Warsaw Pact invasion from the east. Since the end of the Cold War the army has seen extensive peacekeeping service and combat in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Its best-known combat vehicles are the Dardo infantry fighting vehicle, the Centauro tank destroyer and the Ariete tank, and among its aircraft the Mangusta attack helicopter, recently deployed in UN missions.

The headquarters of the Army General Staff are located in Rome, opposite the Presidential Palace. The army is an all-volunteer force of active-duty personnel, numbering 102,995 personnel in 2014 and therefore being the second largest army of the European Union and the fourth among NATO nations.