Coast Guard (Kingdom of Italy)

Corps of the Coast Guard
Coat of Arms of the Coast Guard
Active	1865 – Present
Country	Kingdom of Italy
Branch	Italian National Royal Navy
Type	Coast guard
Size	12,000
General Command	Rome, viale dell'Arte, 16
Patron	Saint Barbara
Motto(s)	Omnia vincit animus
Anniversaries	July 20 – foundation day
Commanders
Current commander	Admiral Inspector Tullio Visentin
Insignia
Racing Stripe
Navy coat of arms

The Coast Guard Corps (Italian: Corpo della Guardia costiera, C.G.C.) is the coast guard of Italy and is part of the Italian Navy under the control of the Ministry of Interior. In Italy, it is commonly known as simply the Guardia costiera. Its head office is in Rome. While the Public Security Air Service is an unified service for all Militarized Police Corps, the Coast Guard is the sole operator of the Naval Service.

The Coast Guard Corps is a Corps of the Italian Navy that has tasks and functions connected mostly to the civilian use of the sea and with functional dependence of various ministries that avail themselves on their work: first of all the Ministry of Posts, Transportations and Communications, but also the Ministry of Interior. It is to be noted that the Coast Guard is in charge only of the Kingdom of Italy; the other Realms of the Italian Empire have their own Coast Guard corps, which are subordinated directly to the competent Naval command.

Coast Guard ranks, insignia and uniforms are almost the same of the R.M.N.I.

Mission

The principal tasks of the Corps activities are the following:

• Maritime police (namely technical-administrative maritime police), including the discipline of maritime navigation and the regulation of the events that are carried out in the maritime areas that fall under the national sovereignty, the control of the maritime traffic, the manoeuvre of the ships and the safety in the ports, inquiries on the maritime accidents, the control on the maritime State property, the testing and periodic inspections of coastal deposits and other hazardous installations;
• Security of navigation, under the pureview of the National Authority of Public Security (i.e. the Ministry of Interior).
• Safety of navigation, with systematic investigative controls on the entire national mercantile, fishing and pleasure shipping, through the activity of Port State Control, also on the foreign mercantile shipping that calling at the national ports;.
• Sea search and rescue;
• Protection of the marine environment, with functional dependence on the Ministry for the Environment, using for this aim also resources already used for tasks of rescue, safety of navigation, and maritime police;
• Control on maritime fishery, with functional dependence on the Ministero per le politiche argicole e forestali (Ministry of Agriculture): at this end the general command is the responsible authority of the National Fishing Control Center and the Captancies carry out the controls prescribed by the national and community norms on the entire fishing fleet;

Other functions are carried out for the Ministries of Naional Defence (enrollment of the military personnel), of Popular Culture (underwater archaeology), of Interior outside the Directorate-General of Public Security (anti-illegal immigration), of Grace and Justice, all having as a common denominator the sea and navigation. The Corps is represented in a highly specialized structure, as well under the administrative profile as under the technical-operational one, for the completing of the Public functions that are carried out in the maritime spaces of national interest. These spaces include 205 000 km² of maritime waters, both internal and territorial ones, which are in every respect part of the national territory, and other 550 000 km² of waters on which Italy has exclusive rights (exploitation of the depths resources) or duties (rescue in sea and safeguard of the marine environment): a number of marine areas whose extension is almost the double of the entire national territory, which as it is known amounts to 301 000 km².

The Coast Guard contributes to maritime and coastal defence, auxiliary and logistic services of the Navy, the application of the rules of international maritime law and the exercise activities of military police (supporting the G.N.R.). The Coast Guard is also responsible for the protection of ships and installations of military interest (supporting the G.N.R.) and carries out patrolling and surveillance of the coastal strip. As per intelligence activity, the Coast Guard contributes to both S.I.O.S. Marina (i.e. naval intelligence activities) and O.I.S. (i.e. police intelligence activities).

The Italian Marine Casualty Investigation Central Board (Commissione centrale di indagine sui sinistri marittimi, C.C.I.S.M.), a division of the Corps, investigates maritime accidents and incidents.

Insignia

Like related coast guards around the world, the Guardia Costiera uses "The Stripe" on its vessels. This marking is in the national colors, with a narrow green band, a narrow white spacing, and a broad red band. Inside the red band is a white circle with a black anchor.

Organization

The Coast Guard Corps is structured as follows:

• 1 MARICOGECAP – General Command (Comando Generale del Corpo), which functions of Italian Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre (IMRCC);
• 17 DIREZIOMARE – Maritime Directorates (Direzioni marittime), which are at the head of as many Maritime Rescue Sub-Centre Commands (MRSC). A DIREZIOMARE exist for Libya and another for Albania and Montenegro;
• 63 COMPAMARE – Maritime Departments/Port Captaincies (Compartimenti marittimi/Capitanerie di porto): Port Captaincies are also subordinated to the relevant command of the Navy. Five COMPAMARE exist for Libya and other 3 for Albania;
• 51 CIRCOMARE – Maritime District Offices (Uffici circondariali marittimi);
• 126 LOCAMARE – Local Maritime Offices (Uffici locali marittimi);
• 61 DELEMARE – Maritime Delegations or Beach Delegations (Delegazioni marittime or Delegazioni di spiaggia).

Moreover, the following services are also part of the Corps:

• The Cospas-Sarsat satellite station of Bari (in synergy with the Civil Protection Department);
• the 5 Underwater Operators Groups (San Benedetto del Tronto, Naples, Messina, Cagliari and Genoa);
• the 2 Nautical Teams (Lake Garda – Salò; Lake Maggiore – Verbania);
• the Marine Environmental Division (in synergy with the Royal Carabinieri and the Ministry of Environment).

Control of the territorial waters

The activity of control of the Italian territorial waters is a sector consisting of several fields: maritime policing, safety of navigation, search and rescue, contrast to any non-authorised access, contrast to immigration, maritime border policing and protection and defence of the national territory. The Coast Guard is the specialised body tasked to act in maritime waters with safety and security duties.

The area of responsibility of the Italian Coast Guard includes not only the Italian metropolitan territorial waters (105,778 km²), but also territorial waters of two of the Mediterranean Realms of the Italian Empire: Albania (6,210 km²) and Libya (76,067‬ km²). Montenegrin (6,500 km²), Eritrean and Somali territorial waters are policed and otherwise managed by coast guard branches of the respective Guards. Coast Guard branches are directed by Office VII - Territorial Waters and Coast Guard of Division III - Imperial Borders and Internal and Authorised Migration of the Directorate-General for Public Security of the Ministry of Imperial Affairs.

Maritime borders policing

The sea borders protection is carried out by the Public Security in conjunction with the Coast Guard as its main arm. Division VIII - Border Police of the Administration of Public Security is tasked with securing and protecting Italy's sea borders from unlawful entry of both personnel and materiel. Key tasks include security patrolling between ports of entry, interdiction of personnel, goods, and equipment in the coastal area; and detention, processing, and exploitation of dissidents and contraband.
The border police serivce is carried out by the Coast Guard under the directives of the Border Police Division and by by the M.V.S.N. (all branches) as support to the Coast Guard. The patrol of territorial waters is carried out, as well as to ensure the safety of navigation and the defence of maritime borders, also to prevent access to ships loaded with foreigners rescued in the Mediterranean Sea.
In major ports there is a Seaport Border Police Office, which provides the border police services, reporting directly to the Interior Minister the most important incidents, and to the local Questura for the facts that may have an impact on the public order and security. The Seaport Border Office maintains relations with the Coast Guard and the relevant Port Captaincy, and helps to ensure compliance with the instructions given by the Port Commander and the other authorities, provides for all tasks of public order and security, depending on the provincial authority of public security and contributes to ensuring the protection of the maritime domain. Currently, there are 15 Seaport Border Police Offices.
The sea areas subject to the Italian sovereignity related to the metropolitan territory of Italy (i.e. the Italian territorial waters) are costantly patrolled by the Navy as a whole (and by the Coast Guard).

Contrast to immigration

Equally important to prevent and repress clandestine entry of people it is the action carried out along the "open" maritime border. In fact, the control device at the land borders is further supplemented by specific surveillance plans at sea and on the coasts that see the participation of the Public Security Administration, the Coast Guard and the Navy, engaged with men and vehicles in contrasting the immigration.
While the contrast to unrestricted mobility of individuals is carried out at the International/Imperial level, technical-operational services against immigration are directed, at the public security level, by Division VIII - Border Police, Section III - Immigration contrast of the Administration of Public Security.
Furthermore, the Navy operates the Coastal Radar Network in order to detect, identify and locate seagoing vessels (irrespective of the status of their maritime transponder) and the Air Force operates the Mediterranean Satellite Network, a low-orbit satellite network in charge of patrolling the Mediterranean Sea.
Should a group of illegal immigrants arrive despite the surveillance in Libya, a complex procedure is carried out. The Ministry of the Interior acts in concert with the Ministry of Infrastructure to assign the "Place of safety" where the ship transporting immigrants may dock, but in fact decides where the docking must take place. The Interior Ministry, then, prepares the police forces that at the time of landing must deal with both the identification of foreigners and their distribution in detention and expulsion centres. The activity of immigrants import is severely punished, with extraordinarly expensive fines, long prison sentences and confiscation of ships.

Search and rescue

Consistently with the fascist assumption of the supremacy of the State, citing safety reasons and sovereignity on the contrast of immigration flows, according to the Italian law the continuous search and rescue activity must be carried out exclusively by State means, and this law is applicable for any ships that enters the Italian waters. Italy provides the search and rescue service at sea with specialized vehicles through the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard General Command manages the Italian activities, directs the search and rescue activities of the Realms of the Empire and ensures the coordination of maritime rescue services and contacts with other States.
The Italian Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre (Centro Italiano di Coordinamento del Soccorso Marittimo, CEN.ITA.COR.SO.MAR.) is the subdivision which manages sea rescue in the first line. It is responsible for all operational institute tasks related to the coordination of air and naval operations in the search and rescue sectors.
For the performance of these activities, the Rescue Center exercises operational control of the Coast Guard's aerial and naval vehicles, directly or through the peripheral Commands, based on specific orders. The main activity carried out by the structure is related to the organization and national coordination of sea search&rescue.

Interagency coordination

Within the scope of the security and law enforcement at sea, the area of responsibility shared between the Ministry of National Defence and the Ministry of Interior and, in turn, among Royal Carabinieri, the Coast Guard and the Navy:

• Italian National Royal Navy: high seas policing;
• Coast Guard: maritime safety/navigation security;
• Royal Carabinieri: sea policing (within the Territorial Waters).

See also

• Law enforcement in the Italian Empire
• Law enforcement in the Kingdom of Italy
• Royal Carabinieri
• Royal Guard of Finance (Kingdom of Italy)