21. Niccolò Lucarelli

First part on the history of “military control of the skies” narrated by Niccolò Lucarelli. From being a space between the sky and earth inspiring poets and philosophers, air has become, in the last three decades, the most strategically important military operational theater. A modern army in fact, today no longer faces ground battles, but mainly controls the evolution of a situation from up high, through the use of drones and unmanned aircrafts. The first episode of this story starts from the modern air war of 1991, Operation Desert Storm, in the skies of Iraq, inaugurating an intelligent aviation capable of hitting military targets while minimizing damage to the civilian population. But before reaching these results, the history of military aviation has known several episodes. The podcast briefly outlines its most important stages, with the Persian Gulf inevitably becoming a “laboratory” between the war of the past and the war of the future.

“… air has always been an indispensable element for human life … impalpable yet concrete… something delicate and profound at the same time, that has been a continuous object of interest for mankind, but as well, from a more prosaic point of view, for the military arts… air has always been considered an important element to control…”

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Niccolò Lucarelli (Prato, 1983) graduated in International Studies, he is curator, art critic, military historian. He collaborates with various publications and with the Army General Staff.