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Italian Navy aircraft carrier ITS Cavour on July 20 entered a dry dock at the Taranto navy yard to receive upgrades that will allow it to operate F-35B jets. The 244-meter Cavour is currently undergoing an extensive overhaul after ten years of service. All works on the ship are expected to be completed by the spring of 2020, when the ship’s crew is set to start training for a summer deployment to the US East Coast and shipboard trials with the short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) variant of the Joint Strike Fighter. In addition to the F-35A version, Italy...

A U.S. Marine Corps F-35B takes off from USS ‘Wasp’ in 2011. Marine Corps photo Cavour, Italy’s only aircraft carrier, is designed to accommodate up to 12 F-35B stealth jump jets. In theory. In reality, actually operating the stealth fighters requires Cavour to undergo some significant modifications. Although conceptually similar to the smaller Harrier jump jet that already flies from Cavour, the Lockheed Martin F-35B produces much more heat than the older Boeing fighter does. During takeoff and landing, the F-35B’s thrust peaks at 186 kilonewtons. By contrast, the most powerful engine ever installed in a Harrier, the Pegasus 11-61/Mk.107,...

Aircraft Carrier Cavour Prepares to Receive F-35B Aircraft (Source: Italian Navy; issued Oct. 27, 2010) (Issued in Italian only; unofficial translation by defense-aerospace.com) From Oct. 18 to Oct. 22, the aircraft carrier Cavour hosted a Site Specific Activation Plan Midterm meeting (SSAP), part of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program according to which the Italian Navy plans to acquire 22 F-35B Short Take-Off and Landing (STOVL) combat aircraft between 2014 and 2021. The meeting was attended by representatives of various Italian and US government agencies ((SEGREDIFESA, MARISTAT, NAVARM, UTNAV Genova, GRUPAER) as well as industry representatives from Lockheed Martin, Fincantieri...

Italian aircraft carrier plays host to Haitian babies Jo Winterbottom LONDON Mon Feb 22, 2010 2:49pm ESTLONDON (Reuters) - Italy's new aircraft carrier has a baby on board -- and expects to host another 50 children for surgery next week, as it uses its state-of-the-art hospital facilities to help survivors of the Haiti earthquake. The Cavour arrived off Port-au-Prince on January 31 and has set up hospitals onshore as well as offering its onboard scanners, laboratories and surgical facilities, Captain Gianluigi Reversi told Reuters in a telephone interview on Monday. "We have a three-month-old girl on board with her mother,...