Italian Government
Origins and Brief History
The Italian Joint Air Operations 
School, former School of Aerial Observation, was founded in 1951 and is located in the Guidonia military airport, northeast of the city of Rome.
The School's origins derive from the restructuring of the School of Aerial Observation, previously established on the same airport in 1948, which had already inherited traditions and tasks from the Italian Army Observation Schools of Cerveteri and the Navy one of Taranto. The years that followed WWII determined the need for greater integration in air to surface activities, therefore the school mainly focused in forming Officers and NCOs of the Italian Armed Forces, and non-armed forces in air to surface operations.
The School also became a pioneer in other fields such as aerial image analysis, where the applications were not only used in the military field. The School was awarded the Gold Medal for Education, Culture and Arts by the President of the Republic of Italy for the discovery of archaeological sites through the analysis of aerial images and for its contributions during natural disasters in support to the Civil Protection Department. In more recent years the School provides also state of the art training to Joint Terminal Attack Controllers (JTAC), highly specialized service members that manage the actions of combat aircrafts in support of ground troops. Members from the four Italian Armed Forces and from International partners come to the school for their JTAC Initial Qualification.
The Italian Joint Air Operations School received the State National Flag from President Giorgio Napolitano on 30th March 2009 at Centocelle Airport in Rome during the celebrations for the 86th Anniversary of the Italian Air Force, and the 100th anniversary of the first engine-propelled airplane flight in Italy. In 2018 the School received its “NATO Accreditation" from the Supreme Allied Command for Transformation based in Norfolk, VA, USA. The NATO accreditation has been recently renewed and will be valid until 2030. In addiction the School holds the prestigious ISO 9001 certification, which is an internationally recognized standard for quality management systems. This certification ensures that the school adheres to systematic, high-quality processes that meet both organizational goals and the expectations of its students and stakeholders, including the Italian Armed Forces and international partners.
Every year the Italian Joint Air Operations School holds more than 45 courses in its portfolio and approximately 700 national and international students come to this institute to be qualified in different fields of instruction under the supervision of the Italian Ministry of Defense.
