Minister of Defence, Guido Crosetto, was aboard ITS Cavour today to greet all personnel and share the highlights of the Mare Aperto 23-1 maritime and multi-domain exercise.

He arrived last night on board the Navy's flagship, which is at anchor off the coast of Sardinia. The Minister will follow some phases of the exercise, which involves a total of 6,000 military and civilian personnel from universities and research centres.

This edition of the Mare Aperto exercise involves 23 nations, including 12 NATO countries and 11 partners. For Italy, forces and personnel of the Naval Aviation, amphibious units of the San Marco Marine Brigade, COMSUBIN raiders and divers, naval vessels and aircraft of the Harbour Office Corps, as well as vehicles and personnel of Army, Air Force, Carabinieri and Guardia di Finanza are deployed.