Italian law enforcement agencies detained a russian intelligence agent who was gathering information about the details of military-technical cooperation between Ukraine and Italy.
It is reported that russian intelligence has taken an interest in Ukraine's possible acquisition of the Italian Michelangelo Dome air defense system, as well as discussions about the possible assembly of CAMM-ER anti-aircraft missiles in Ukraine. This was reported by Defense News.
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According to reports, the 59-year-old suspect, Gavino Piras, is a former Italian intelligence officer who maintained contact with russian military attaché Mikhail Astakov, who had previously been expelled from Italy on suspicion of espionage.
The agent passed on the information he obtained via microSD cards. In general, russians were interested in any information related to how the West—and Italy in particular—is helping Ukraine strengthen its air defenses and conduct long-range strikes against targets inside russia.
As part of this effort, the Italian agent sought information for his russian handlers about the Italian-French SAMP/T air defense systems being supplied to Ukraine.
From Defense Express we would like add that CAMM-ER anti-aircraft missiles have a launch range of up to 45 kilometers and are used on the British Sky Sabre air defense systems and the Polish systems under the Narew program.
According to publicly available information, the Michelangelo Dome is an AI-based fire control system with an open architecture designed to integrate various air defense systems into a unified detection-to-engagement chain.
Notably, there had previously been no publicly available information about the possible deployment of CAMM-ER surface-to-air missiles in Ukraine or the transfer of the Italian Michelangelo Dome system.
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