31° Stormo (Aeronautica Militare)

A white A319 with no airline name but with the Air Force’s green, white and red roundel taxis to the runway at Ciampino among low-cost jets – for spotters in Rome, that is one of the moments that make the waiting worthwhile. Behind Italy’s government aircraft stands the 31° Stormo “Carmelo Raiti” of the Aeronautica Militare. It flies without a flight schedule and without a booking system, but with a small, very deliberately assembled fleet. This page shows you who the Stormo is, which types belong to it, how to read MM serials and where you have realistic chances.

The 31° Stormo at a glance

The 31° Stormo is not an airline, even though it appears here next to ITA Airways and the historic Alitalia. In the Italian Air Force, a “Stormo” is a wing. The 31° Stormo reports to the Air Fleet Command through the Mobility and Support Command. Its state fleet is operationally managed through the service for state and government flights at the Prime Minister’s Office – so that is where it is decided who flies when.

The passenger list is short but prominent: the President, the presidents of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, the Prime Minister, the president of the Constitutional Court, government members and senior military officers. The Pope also uses Stormo airplanes and helicopters.

At least as important is the second mission, which hardly anyone outside Italy knows about: urgent medical transport. The crews fly patients in life-threatening condition, donor organs and medical teams across Italy and abroad, plus humanitarian missions. The Falcons in particular are often out on these flights – so a sighting at Ciampino can just as well be an organ transport as a minister’s trip.

From seaplane bombers to the state squadron

The history of the 31° Stormo begins far from government jets. Knowing it explains why old photos show such different aircraft:

• October 1, 1933 – Orbetello: An experimental wing for seaplane bombers with the 93rd and 94th Groups is created at the Orbetello seaplane base in Tuscany. It flies SIAI S.55X flying boats.
• 1936: The wing receives its current name, 31° Stormo.
• 1940: The Stormo goes to war with CANT Z.506 seaplanes from Cagliari-Elmas. It is dissolved on November 5, 1940; the 93rd Group remains active until the end of the war.
• March 1, 1965: The helicopter center at Pratica di Mare becomes the 31° Stormo Elicotteri.
• October 6, 1976: The Stormo takes over the fixed-wing aircraft of the Reparto Volo Stato Maggiore, the General Staff’s flight department. Its 306th Group had already been formed in the 1950s and moved to Ciampino in 1957. From here on, the 31° Stormo is the state squadron we know today.
• From 1985: Two Gulfstream III and four Falcon 50 join the fleet and replace, among others, the Piaggio PD-808.
• 1999 to 2006: Falcon 900s replace the Gulfstream III and some of the Falcon 50s.
• 2000 to 2003: First two, then three Airbus A319CJs replace the DC-9.
• 2012: Two AW139s replace the aging SH-3D helicopters.
• 2016 to 2018: A leased Airbus A340-500 supplements the state fleet for long-haul flights.
• From 2025: Gulfstream G650ERs replace the Falcons.

Today the Stormo is divided into the 306° Gruppo with the airplanes and the 93° Gruppo with the helicopters. The motto is “A Rinnovar le Gesta” – roughly: to renew the deeds.

Reading MM serials and callsigns

With an airline, you look at the flight number and the registration. With the 31° Stormo, it works differently:

• No IATA code: There are no tickets, so there is no two-letter airline code either.
• ICAO prefix IAM: The Aeronautica Militare uses the ICAO code IAM with the callsign “ITALIAN AIRFORCE”. Many Stormo flights appear on trackers under this prefix.
• MM serial number: Instead of a civil I- registration, the aircraft carry a “Matricola Militare”, such as MM62174. The state fleet’s airplanes carry numbers in the MM62xxx range, the helicopters in the MM818xx range.
• Air Force type designation: Italy gives its types their own abbreviations – VC-319A for the A319CJ, VC-900 for the Falcon 900, VC-650A for the G650ER and VH-139A for the VIP AW139.

That makes logging easy: once you have the MM serial, the aircraft is unambiguous. How registrations are built in general is explained in the article Understanding aircraft registrations.

Serial number	Type	Air Force designation	Role
MM62174, MM62209, MM62243	Airbus A319CJ	VC-319A	State flights with larger delegations, including medium-haul
MM62210	Dassault Falcon 900EX	VC-900	State and medical transport flights
MM62244, MM62245	Dassault Falcon 900EX EASy	VC-900	State and medical transport flights
MM62343 to MM62346	Gulfstream G650ER	VC-650A	Successor to the Falcons
MM81806, MM81807	AgustaWestland AW139	VH-139A	VIP helicopters, e.g. for the Pope

The fleet: from the AW139 to the A319CJ

The 31° Stormo’s fleet is small enough to tick off completely – provided you bring patience and a bit of willingness to travel. According to fleet overviews as of 2025, it comprises around 14 aircraft.

Airbus A319CJ – the flagship

The three Airbus A319s in the corporate jet version are the largest aircraft in the state fleet. In service since 2000, they replaced the DC-9 and fly mainly when a larger delegation is traveling or the route is too long for a business jet. Italy originally had another A319CJ (MM62173), which was sold to the Turkish government in 2005.

From the outside, the ACJ barely differs from an airline A319. The short cabin with only one pair of overwing exits sets the A319 apart from the A320 and A321 – you will find details in the article Telling the A318, A319, A320 and A321 apart. You assign it to the Stormo by the MM serial and roundel.

Dassault Falcon 900 – the workhorses

The Dassault Falcon 900 from Dassault Aviation in the 900EX and 900EX EASy versions has been the backbone of the fleet for years. As a three-engine jet with engines at the tail, it is easy to recognize. It flies ministers, delegations and many of the urgent medical transports. The Air Force also uses it to train its flight crews.

Its days with the Stormo are numbered, because the Gulfstreams are gradually taking over. When the last Falcon goes is an open question – if you still want to catch one in the hangar, don’t wait too long.

Gulfstream G650ER – the new generation

Since 2025, Gulfstream G650ERs have been arriving at the Stormo, designated VC-650A by the Air Force. The first two aircraft were handed over in spring 2025; four are on order with the serial numbers MM62343 to MM62346, plus an option for a fifth aircraft. The G650ER has significantly more range than the Falcon 900. The manufacturer is Gulfstream Aerospace.

You recognize the G650 by its two engines at the tail, the long, slender fuselage and the large oval cabin windows. How to tell it apart from the Falcon, Global and others is shown in the article Telling business jet types apart.

VH-139A and UH-139A – the helicopters

The 93° Gruppo flies two AW139s in VIP configuration as the VH-139A. They arrived in 2012 as successors to the SH-3D and fly the President, senior government representatives and the Pope. There are also two UH-139As from civil protection stocks, which according to fleet overviews are mainly used for training, however. The AW139 is built by Leonardo, whose helicopter division used to be called AgustaWestland.

Retired: the A340, DC-9 and the old Falcons

In archive photos you will come across types that you no longer see with the 31° Stormo today:

• Airbus A340-500 I-TALY: The former Etihad jet flew from 2016 to 2018 as a leased state aircraft, flown by Air Force pilots. Because the runway at Ciampino had restrictions for the four-engine jet, it departed from Rome Fiumicino Airport. The civil registration instead of an MM serial was unusual. The contract was terminated in 2018.
• Douglas DC-9-32: The predecessors of the A319CJ. In 1982, a Stormo DC-9 brought the newly crowned world football champions home from Spain together with President Sandro Pertini.
• Falcon 50 and Gulfstream III: In service from 1985; they no longer appear in current fleet overviews.
• Piaggio P.180 Avanti: Two of these distinctive canard turboprops flew with the Stormo until 2018 and then went to the 14° Stormo.
• Early types: Douglas C-47 and C-53, DC-6B, Convair CV-440 and the small Piaggio PD-808 jet belong to the older history, along with the SH-3D helicopters.

For state visits far across the Atlantic, Italian presidents by the way also used to take widebody jets from airlines – for example a DC-10 in 1982 for Sandro Pertini’s trip to the USA. If you want to see historic Air Force aircraft, the Museo Storico dell’Aeronautica Militare in Vigna di Valle on Lake Bracciano is a rewarding destination not far from Rome.

How to recognize Italian government aircraft

The state fleet has a restrained design: mostly white, with the Aeronautica Militare national insignia and the MM serial. Precisely because the types come from the civil business jet market, these military details are the key.

Spotting the 31° Stormo

The Stormo’s flights appear in no flight schedule. Your chances depend on where you stand and on what is going on politically or medically.

Rome Ciampino is the home base and at the same time a civil airport. That is a big advantage over pure military airfields: takeoffs and landings use the same runway as civil traffic, and you can watch them from publicly accessible areas around the airport. You will find more about the airport on the page for Rome Ciampino Airport. The Stormo’s parking areas, on the other hand, are on the military side – photos of the grounds themselves are off-limits, as explained in the article Photographing military airfields.

Rome Fiumicino is the big neighbor. It plays a smaller role for the Stormo today, but if you are in Rome anyway, a day there is worthwhile – the plane spotting guide for Rome Fiumicino shows you the best places.

Summits, state visits and papal trips bring the Stormo to airports all over Europe. If you spot in Berlin, Brussels or Paris, keep an eye on the news when a meeting with Italian participation is coming up. There you will often also encounter the German Flugbereitschaft of the BMVg (the German Federal Ministry of Defense’s air transport wing) or the French ET 60.

For the right light at Ciampino, the article Planning the sun position helps.

Common mix-ups

• Mistaking the 31° Stormo for an airline – it is an Air Force wing with no ticket sales and no IATA code.
• Attributing every Falcon at Ciampino to the Stormo – private business jets and aircraft of other operators are parked there too. The MM serial decides.
• Confusing the Falcon 900 and G650ER – the Falcon has three engines, the Gulfstream two.
• Mistaking the A319CJ for an airline A319 – without airline titles, with a roundel and an MM serial, it is the state fleet.
• Still looking for the A340 – the lease ended in 2018.
• Expecting only VIP flights – many missions are urgent medical transports.

Conclusion

The 31° Stormo is Italy’s most exclusive fleet: three A319CJs, a handful of Falcons, the new G650ERs and a few VIP helicopters – and no flight schedule. If you can read MM serials, recognize the Air Force prefix IAM on the tracker and keep an eye on Ciampino and the news, you turn chance encounters into a plannable hunt. With the switch from the Falcon 900 to the Gulfstream, now is a particularly good time to take a close look at the fleet.