title: Italian Army

text: The Italian Army ( []) is the land-based component of the Italian Armed Forces. The army's history dates back to the Italian unification in the 1850s and 1860s. The army fought in colonial engagements in China, Libya, Northern Italy against the Austro-Hungarian Empire during World War I, Abyssinia before World War II and in World War II in Albania, Balkans, North Africa, the Soviet Union, and Italy itself. During the Cold War, the army prepared itself to defend against a Warsaw Pact invasion from the east. Since the end of the Cold War, the army has seen extensive peacekeeping service and combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. Its best-known combat vehicles are the Dardo infantry fighting vehicle, the Centauro tank destroyer and the Ariete tank and among its aircraft the Mangusta attack helicopter, recently deployed in UN missions. The headquarters of the Army General Staff are located in Rome opposite the Quirinal Palace, where the president of Italy resides. The army is an all-volunteer force of active-duty personnel.


title: Italian Army

text: The Italian Army originated as the Royal Army ("Regio Esercito"), which dates from the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy following the seizure of the Papal States and the unification of Italy ("Risorgimento"). In 1861, under the leadership of Giuseppe Garibaldi, Victor Emmanuel II of the House of Savoy was invited to take the throne and of the newly created kingdom.


title: Italian Army

text: Italian expeditions were dispatched to China during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 and to Libya during the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912.


title: Italian Army

text: The Italian Royal Army's first real taste of modern warfare was during World War I. Most of the actions were fought in northern Italy, and the Royal Army suffered many casualties. This included over 700,000 dead. In particular, the frequency of the offensives in which Italian soldiers participated between May 1915 and August 1917, one every three months, was higher than demanded by the armies on the Western Front. Italian discipline was also harsher, with punishments for infractions of duty of a severity not known in the German, French, and British armies.


title: Italian Army

text: During the Interwar Years the Royal Army participated in the Italian Invasion of Ethiopia, provided men and materials during the Spanish Civil War to fight in the Corps of Volunteer Troops ("Corpo Truppe Volontarie"), and launched the Italian invasion of Albania.


title: Italian Army

text: On paper, the Royal Army was one of the largest ground forces in World War II. In reality, it could not field the numbers claimed, and it was one of the pioneers in using paratroopers. Due to their generally smaller size, many Italian divisions were reinforced by an Assault Group ("Gruppo d'Assalto") of two battalions of Blackshirts (MVSN).


title: Italian Army

text: Reports of Italian military prowess in the Second World War were almost always dismissive. This perception was the result of disastrous Italian offensives against Egypt and the performance of the army in the Greco-Italian War. Both campaigns were ill-prepared and executed inadequately. The Italian 10th Army initially advanced into Egypt but surrendered after being pushed back into central Libya and almost all destroyed by British forces a fifth its size during the three-month Operation Compass.


title: Italian Army

text: The incompetent military leadership was aggravated by the Italian military's equipment, which predominantly dated back to the First World War and was not up to the standard of either the Allied or the German armies. Italian 'medium' M11, M13, M14 and M15 tanks were at a marked disadvantage against the comparatively heavily armed American Sherman tanks, for example. More crucially, Italy lacked suitable quantities of equipment of all kinds, and the Italian high command did not take the necessary steps to plan for possible battlefield setbacks or proper logistical support to its field armies. There were too few anti-aircraft weapons, obsolete anti-tank guns, and too few trucks.


title: Italian Army

text: The Italian Expeditionary Corps in Russia fought under General Giovanni Messe, who acknowledged the limitations of his Corps in material and equipment and thus was relieved of his command on November 1, 1942. When the Soviet offensive Operation Saturn began on December 12, 1942 the Italian 8th Army was quickly crushed. Only about a third of its troops managed to escape the Soviet cauldron, including from the three Alpini Divisions Tridentina, Julia and Cuneense.


title: Italian Army

text: In North Africa, the Italian 132 Armored Division Ariete and the 185 Airborne Division Folgore fought to total annihilation at the Second Battle of El Alamein. Although the battle was lost, the determined resistance of the Italian soldiers at the Battle of Keren in East Africa is still commemorated today by the Italian military.


title: Italian Army

text: After the Axis defeat in Tunisia, the morale of the Italian troops dropped. Once the Allies landed in Sicily on July 10, 1943, most Italian Coastal divisions simply dissolved. The sagging morale led to the overthrow of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini by King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy 15 days later.


title: Italian Army

text: In September 1943, Italy made an armistice with the Allies and split into the Italian Social Republic – effectively a puppet state of Germany – in the north and that of the Badoglio government in the south. The Italian Co-Belligerent Army ("Esercito Cobelligerante Italiano") was the army of the Italian royalist forces fighting on the side of the Allies in southern Italy after the Allied armistice with Italy in September 1943. The Italian soldiers fighting in this army no longer fought for Benito Mussolini as their allegiance was to King Victor Emmanuel and to Marshal of Italy (Maresciallo d'Italia) Pietro Badoglio, the men who ousted Mussolini.


title: Italian Army

text: The kingdom was replaced by a Republic in June 1946, and the Royal Army changed its name to become the Italian Army ("Esercito Italiano"). Initially, the army fielded five infantry divisions, created from the five combat groups of the Italian Co-belligerent Army and equipped with British material. Additionally the army fielded three internal security divisions without heavy equipment to garrison the country's two major islands:


title: Italian Army

text: As the status of the city of Free Territory of Trieste was disputed by the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia the Italian army moved the "Folgore" to Treviso and the "Mantova" to Gorizia in 1947. At the same time, the army began training an additional seven divisions and five Alpini brigades.


title: Italian Army

text: Following the creation of NATO, the Italian Army was integrated into NATO's Allied Forces Southern Europe and prepared for a feared invasion from the east, possibly via Yugoslavia. Allied Land Forces Southern Europe (LANDSOUTH), was activated on 10 July 1951 to defend northeastern Italy. The command was headquartered at Verona, and placed under Lieutenant General Maurizio Lazzaro De Castiglioni. Some three infantry divisions and three brigades were the only forces initially available to this command to defend northeastern Italy. The divisions in question were the Infantry Division "Mantova" in Gorizia, the Motorized Infantry Division "Folgore" in Treviso, the Motorized Infantry Division "Trieste" in Bologna. Two of the three brigades were Alpini mountain infantry brigades – the Alpine Brigade "Julia" in Cividale del Friuli and Alpine Brigade "Tridentina" in Brixen, while the third brigade was the Armored Brigade "Ariete" in Pordenone. Exercise "Italic Weld", a combined air-naval-ground exercise in northern Italy involving the United States, Italy, Turkey, and Greece, appears to have been one of the first exercises in which the new Italian Army orientation was tested.


title: Italian Army

text: On 1 May 1952 the army activated one army command and two corps commands, the Third Army in Padua, and the IV Army Corps in Bolzano and V Army Corps in Vittorio Veneto, to be able to circumvent NATO's chain of command in case a war should break out between Italy and Yugoslavia for the Free Territory of Trieste. Later in 1952 the army also raised the VI Army Corps in Bologna, followed by the III Army Corps in Milan in 1957, both of which were also assigned to the Third Army.


title: Italian Army

text: During the early 1960s the army reduced the "Trieste", "Friuli", "Pozzuolo del Friuli", "Pinerolo", "Avellino", and "Aosta" divisions to brigades and raised the I Paratroopers Brigade in Pisa. On 1 October 1965, the Infantry Brigade "Avellino" was disbanded and, on 10 June 1967, the 1st Paratroopers Brigade was allowed to add "Folgore" to its name. It was now named Paratroopers Brigade "Folgore". With the easing of tensions between Italy and Yugoslavia, the Third Army, along with VI Army Corps, was disbanded on 1 April 1972, and its functions were taken over by NATO's Allied Forces Southern Europe in Verona. Before the disbanding of Third Army the army's structure was as follows:


title: Italian Army

text: The most significant reorganization of the Italian Army took place in 1975, when the regimental level was abolished and battalions came under direct command of newly formed multi-arms brigades. At the same time, the reduction of the military service from 15 to 12 months for the army and air force and from 24 to 18 months for the navy forced the army to reduce its forces by nearly 45,000 troops. Therefore, while in the existing brigades "Orobica", "Tridentina", "Cadore", "Julia", "Taurinense", "Friuli", "Trieste", "Folgore", "Pinerolo", "Aosta" and "III Missile Brigade" only the regimental level was abolished, the divisions and "Pozzuolo del Friuli" brigade were subjected to major changes:


title: Italian Army

text: While the "Cremona" division was reduced to a brigade, the "Granatieri di Sardegna" and "Legnano" divisions and the "Pozzuolo del Friuli" brigade were split to create two new brigades each. Afterwards, the three divisions ceased to exist.


title: Italian Army

text: The remaining four divisions were also subjected to major changes and reductions, however, unlike the above three divisions, they remained in service after the reform. The units of the "Folgore" and "Mantova" divisions were mostly disbanded, and the remnants used to create one brigade each; then the two divisions were augmented by two brigades each to bring them back up to strength. The "Centauro" division was split into two brigades and then brought back to full strength by adding the Mechanized Brigade "Legnano". Only the "Ariete" division saw no reduction in its ranks, and its three regiments were used to create three brigades.


title: Italian Army

text: In 1986 the remaining four divisional headquarters were dissolved and all brigades in Northern Italy came under direct command of the Army's three Army Corps, while the brigades in Central and Southern Italy came under operational control of the local administrative Military Regions. With the disappearance of the divisions the army renamed some of the divisional brigades and granted all of them a new coat of arms to reflect their new independence. By 1989 the army was structured as depicted in the graphic below:


title: Italian Army

text: At the end of the Cold War in 1989 the Italian Army consisted of 26 Combat Brigades: four Armored Brigades, ten Mechanized Infantry Brigades, five Motorized Infantry Brigades, five Alpine Brigades, one Rocket Artillery Brigade and one paratroopers Brigade.


title: Italian Army

text: The Armored Brigades consisted of one Command & Signals Battalion, two or three Tank Battalions with Leopard 1A2 tanks, one Mechanized Infantry Battalion with M113 APCs, one Self-propelled Field Artillery Group with M109 howitzers, one Logistic Battalion, an Anti-Tank Company and an Engineer Company.


title: Italian Army

text: The Mechanized Brigades consisted of one Command & Signals Battalion, one Tank Battalion (Leopard 1), three Mechanized Infantry Battalions (M113), one Self-propelled Field Artillery Battalion with M109 howitzers, one Logistic Battalion, an Anti-Tank Company and an Engineer Company; however, the Pinerolo Mechanized Brigades fielded a Field Artillery Group with FH-70 howitzers. Additionally, the "Gorizia" and "Mantova" mechanized brigades fielded two Position Infantry battalions each, which were tasked with manning fortifications and bunkers along the Yugoslav-Italian border.


title: Italian Army

text: The Motorized Brigades consisted of one Command & Signals Battalion, one Armored Battalion (a mixed unit of tanks and mechanized infantry), three Motorized Infantry Battalions, one Field Artillery Group (FH-70), one Logistic Battalion, an Anti-Tank Company and an Engineer Company; however, the Sassari Brigade did not contain a field artillery battalion.


title: Italian Army

text: The Paratroopers Brigade "Folgore" did field one Command & Signals Battalion, one Paratroopers Assault Battalion (a Special Forces Unit), three Paratroopers Battalions, one Airborne Field Artillery Group with Mod 56 howitzers, one Logistic Battalion, one Army Aviation Helicopter Battalion and an Engineer Company.


title: Italian Army

text: Three of the five Alpine Brigades consisted of one Command & Signals Battalion, two Alpini Battalions, one Alpini Training Battalion, two Mountain Artillery Groups (Mod 56), one Logistic Battalion, an Anti-Tank Company and an Engineer Company; In contrast, the "Tridentina" brigade fielded an Alpini d'Arresto Battalion instead of the Alpini Training Battalion. The exception was the Julia Alpine Brigade which consisted of one Command & Signals Battalion, four Alpini Battalions, one Alpini d'Arresto Battalion, one Alpini Training Battalion, three Mountain Artillery Battalions, one Logistic Battalion, an Anti-Tank Company and an Engineer Company, making the Julia the largest brigade of the Italian Army.


title: Italian Army

text: The "d'Arresto" Alpini and Infantry units were designated to hold specific fortified locations directly at the border to slow down an attacking enemy. They were not a maneuver element but attached for training and logistic purposes to brigades stationed close to the border.


title: Italian Army

text: The Missile Brigade "Aquileia" fielded a mix of heavy artillery and missile units, both capable of firing tactical nuclear weapons. The main missile weapon of the brigade was the MGM-52 Lance missile.


title: Italian Army

text: Additionally the Army fielded 24 Anti-tank companies, one in each combat brigade except the "Sassari" brigade.


title: Italian Army

text: In 1991, the Army began the post-Cold War draw-down of its forces with the disbandment of seven brigades and a large number of smaller units. The brigades disbanded in 1991 were the "Aquileia", "Brescia", "Goito", "Mameli", "Orobica", "Trieste", and "Vittorio Veneto". The units subordinated to these brigades were mostly disbanded, while the "Garibaldi" brigade command was transferred with one of its battalions to Campania.


title: Italian Army

text: With the relaxing military situation, the Italian Army kept drawing down forces and disbanding smaller military units, which necessitated a major reorganization by 1997 to merge the remaining battalions into coherent units and disband now superfluous brigade commands. Thus a further six brigades were disbanded during the latter half of 1996 and 1997: "Acqui", "Cadore", "Cremona", "Gorizia", "Legnano", and "Mantova". In addition, the remaining units were moved to new bases and changed in composition, designation, and tasks. The three Army Corps were renamed, and their functions expanded: the 3rd Army Corps became the "Projection Forces Command" (COMFOP), commanding the rapid reaction forces of the Army, the 4th Alpine Army Corps became the "Alpine Troops Command" (COMALP) focusing on peace-keeping operations and the 5th Army Corps became the "1st Defense Forces Command" (COMFOD1) tasked with defending Northern Italy. On January 1, 1998, the "2nd Defense Forces Command" (COMFOD2) was activated in Naples and tasked with defending South and Central Italy. During the Cold War, the Italian Army units were to be commanded in wartime by NATO's LANDSOUTH Command in Verona; on October 1, 1997, out of elements of the aforementioned NATO Command, the new "Operational Terrestrial Forces Command" (COMFOTER) was activated. The COMFOTER took command of all the combat, combat support, combat service support and CIS units of the Italian Army. Along with the COMFOTER in Verona, a Support Command (COMSUP) was raised in Treviso, which gained operational control of all the remaining combat support, combat service support and CIS units of the Army. The COMSUP controlled three division-sized formations (Army Aviation Command, Air-Defense Artillery Command, C4-IEW Command) and three brigade-sized formations (Field Artillery Brigade, Engineer Brigade, Logistic Support Command).


title: Italian Army

text: Between 1997 and 2002 the Army continued to tweak the new structure and with the abolition of obligatory military service a further two brigades ("Centauro", "Tridentina") were disbanded in 2002. On December 1, 2000, the COMFOP became the NATO Rapid Deployable Corps Italy (NRDC-IT) and passed its subordinate units to the COMFOD 1 ("Friuli", "Folgore") and COMFOD 2 ("Garibaldi") commands. The "Friuli" Brigade changed its composition and became an airmobile brigade with Army Aviation, Cavalry and Infantry units. The COMSUP had already been reorganized and streamlined in 2000.


title: Italian Army

text: During 2011 some small changes regarding the support units of the Army were enacted. The COMSUP took command of the Army's schools and merged them, where possible, with the support brigades. Minor units were moved South and to the islands to reduce the Army's footprint in the wealthier North of Italy. At the same time, the designation of the "Pinerolo" brigade was changed back to Mechanized Infantry Brigade. Afterwards the COMSUP consisted, besides four Army schools of the following commands:


title: Italian Army

text: In 2013 the Army began a major reform. The three corp-level commands COMFOD 1, COMFOD 2 and COMALP were to disband, while the "Mantova" Division Command moved from Vittorio Veneto to Florence, where it was renamed as Division "Friuli", taking the name and traditions of the Air Assault Brigade "Friuli". Together with the other two divisions Acqui and Tridentina the Friuli took command of operational brigades of the Italian Army.


title: Italian Army

text: The Logistic Projection Command was disbanded, and its units attached directly to the brigades. As part of the reform, the Army raised the Army Special Forces Command (COMFOSE) in Pisa, which took command of all Special Operations Forces of the Army. Furthermore, the Operational Terrestrial Forces Command (COMFOTER) in Verona was split on 1 October 2016 into the "Operational Land Forces Command and Army Operational Command" in Rome and the "Operational Land Forces Support Command" in Verona.


title: Italian Army

text: After the reform, each maneuver brigade, except the "Pozzuolo del Friuli" and "Sassari, was planned to field the following units: a command and signal unit with the brigade staff, one cavalry reconnaissance regiment, three combat maneuver regiments, one artillery regiment, one engineer regiment, and one logistic regiment.


title: Italian Army

text: The "Pozzuolo del Friuli" brigade was planned to merge with the "Friuli" brigade and field a cavalry reconnaissance regiment, an air-assault infantry regiment, an amphibious-assault infantry regiment, a reconnaissance helicopter regiment, an attack helicopter regiment, a field artillery regiment, an engineer regiment, a logistic regiment as well as the standard command and signal unit with the brigade staff.


title: Italian Army

text: The "Sassari" brigade would not field a cavalry reconnaissance regiment and an artillery regiment unless funds were to be found to raise these units on Sardinia. The "Granatieri di Sardegna" brigade was destined to disband, with its cavalry regiment joining the "Pinerolo" brigade. In contrast, the 1st Granatieri di Sardegna Regiment was planned to become a public duties unit under the Capital Military Command in Rome. In 2013 the reform started with the disbanding of the 131st Tank Regiment and the 57th Infantry Battalion "Abruzzi", while the 33rd Field Artillery Regiment "Acqui" was reformed as 185th Paratroopers Artillery Regiment "Folgore". In 2014 the 2nd Mountain Artillery Regiment was disbanded, followed by the 5th Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment "Pescara" and the 47th Infantry Regiment "Ferrara" in 2015.


title: Italian Army

text: As part of the reform, all army schools, training regiments and training centres were to be combined into the newly raised Army Formation, Specialisation and Doctrine Command ("Comando per la Formazione, Specializzazione e Dottrina dell’Esercito" or COMFORDOT) in Rome. However, as of July 2019, the Alpine Training Center and the Parachuting Training Center remain with the Alpine Troops Command and the Paratroopers Brigade Folgore, respectively.


title: Italian Army

text: As the security situation in Europe had changed in 2014 with the Russian annexation of Crimea the 2013 reform was paused. Neither were the "Pozzuolo del Friuli", and "Friuli" brigades merged, nor was the "Granatieri di Sardegna" brigade disbanded. On 1 July 2019, the army officially ended the 2013 reform: on that date in Florence, the Division "Friuli" was renamed Division "Vittorio Veneto". With this, the traditions of the name "Friuli" returned to the Airmobile Brigade "Friuli", whose merger with the "Pozzuolo del Friuli" brigade was disbanded. Likewise the disbanding of the "Granatieri di Sardegna" brigade was disbanded, and it was decided that the second battalion of the brigade's 1st "Granatieri di Sardegna" "Regiment" would become independent as 2nd Grenadier Battalion "Cengio" and grow to regiment by 2020 as first step to bring the brigade back to full strength.


title: Italian Army

text: On 10 January 2020 the 31st Tank Regiment was reformed as Regiment "Cavalleggeri di Lodi" (15th) thus completing the transformation of the Mechanized Brigade "Pinerolo".


title: Italian Army

text: The Italian Army has participated in operations to aid populations hit by natural disasters. It has, moreover, supplied a remarkable contribution to the forces of police for the control of the territory of the province of Bolzano/Bozen (1967), in Sardinia ("Forza Paris" 1992), in Sicily ("Vespri Siciliani"1992) and in Calabria (1994). Currently, it protects sensitive objectives and places throughout the national territory ("Operazione Domino") since the September 11 attacks in the United States. The army is also engaged in Missions abroad under the aegis of the UN, the NATO, and of Multinational forces, such as Beirut in Lebanon (1982), Namibia (1989), Albania (1991), Kurdistan (1991), Somalia (1992), Mozambique (1993), Bosnia (1995), East Timor and Kosovo (both in 1999), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2001), Darfur (2003), Afghanistan (2002), Iraq (2003) and Lebanon again (2006) (in fact from 1980, Italy was the third major world contributor, after USA and UK, in peacekeeping missions).


title: Italian Army

text: The Carabinieri, once the senior corps of the Army, is now an autonomous armed force (alongside the Army, Navy and Air Force). The Carabinieri provide military police services to all the Italian armed forces.


title: Italian Army

text: The Armed Forces of Italy are under the command of the Italian Supreme Defense Council, presided over by the President of the Italian Republic.


title: Italian Army

text: All brigades have been deployed and are continuously deployed in operations outside of Italy. Combat brigades field between 3–5,000 troops each. Brigade maneuver units are designated as regiments but field men and equipment similar to large battalions, consisting of large Command and Logistic Support Company and a combat battalion. Artillery regiments field and additional Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Tactical Liaison Battery.


title: Italian Army

text: Depending on the type of brigade (light, medium, heavy) each brigade fields three maneuver battalions. Currently, the Folgore, Taurinense, and Julia each field three light infantry regiments, the Pinerolo and Aosta each field three medium infantry regiments, and the Garibaldi and Ariete field two, respectively one heavy infantry regiment, and one, respectively two tank regiments. The Friuli, Sassari, Granatieri di Sardegna and Pozzuolo del Friuli brigades' regiments are structured like all other army regiments. However, these four brigades do not field the full complement of eight units.


title: Italian Army

text: Two of the three infantry regiments of the Sassari brigade are still equipped as light regiments, while the brigade's 3rd Bersaglieri Regiment has begun the switch to medium infantry regiment on 6 January 2018. The 2nd Regiment "Granatieri di Sardegna" was reactivated on 1 September 2022 as a light infantry regiment and will switch to heavy regiment once new tracked infantry fighting vehicles will be acquired by the army.


title: Italian Army

text: The Italian Army uses uniforms that can be divided into four different "families", and hold strict rules that apply to the type of textile, color and badge of the uniforms.. These include: the Regular Uniform (the only one that includes seasonal variations), the Service Uniform, the Service Combat Uniform, and the Ceremonial Uniform (only for officials).


title: Italian Army

text: The Regular Uniform comes in summer and winter versions differing exclusively in textiles used. A single-breasted jacket with four buttons and four pockets, and trousers with a classic cut and front pleats with five pockets. The undershirt also has two small pockets. The uniform is completed by a necktie, brown leather gloves, brown shoes, khaki socks, and a cap or headdress.


title: Italian Army

text: The summer and winter Service Uniform have identical cuts and colors to the Regular uniform, while active military personnel always utilize a special headdress included with the uniform.


title: Italian Army

text: The Service Combat Uniform is most commonly used out of the four "families" and is distributed to all soldiers with the same mimetic pattern (paratroopers have a different model with strengthening on the shoulders). The uniform comprises a beret, a five-button closure jacket with two internal pockets, and trousers with four pockets. Accessories completing the uniform include gloves, special footwear and a t-shirt with short or long sleeves, depending on the season.


title: Italian Army

text: The Ceremonial Uniform includes a double-breasted jacket with six buttons and two pockets on the hips. Trousers come with a classic cut, having the same jacket fabric. The winter version can be worn with the blue cape infantry, a black rigid cap, white gloves and black shoes. Other accessories such as the necktie, a light blue scarf and a sabre complete the uniform.


title: Italian Army

text: A post-World War II peace treaty signed by Italy prevented the country from deploying military forces in overseas operations as well as possessing fixed-wing vessel-based aircraft for twenty-five years following the end of the war.


title: Italian Army

text: This treaty expired in 1970, but it would not be until 1982 that Italy first deployed troops on foreign soil, with a peacekeeping contingent dispatched to Beirut following a United Nations request for troops. Since the 1980s, Italian troops have participated with other Western countries in peacekeeping operations across the world, especially in Africa, Balkan Peninsula, and the Middle East.


title: Italian Army

text: The Italian Army has not engaged in major combat operations since World War II. However, Italian Special Forces have taken part in anti-Taliban operations in Afghanistan as part of Task Force 'Nibbio'. Italy was not yet a member of the United Nations in 1950 at the time of the war with North Korea.


title: Italian Army

text: Italy did take part in the 1990–91 Gulf War but solely through the deployment of eight Italian Air Force Panavia Tornado IDS bomber jets to Saudi Arabia; Italian Army troops were subsequently deployed to assist Kurdish refugees in northern Iraq following the conflict.


title: Italian Army

text: As part of Operation Enduring Freedom in response to the September 11 attacks, Italy contributed to the international operation in Afghanistan. Italian forces have contributed to ISAF, the NATO force in Afghanistan, and a Provincial reconstruction team, and 53 Italian soldiers have died under ISAF. Italy has sent 4200 troops, based on one infantry company from the 2nd Alpini Regiment tasked to protect the ISAF HQ, one engineer company, one NBC platoon, one logistic unit, as well as liaison and staff elements integrated into the operation chain of command. Italian forces also command a multinational engineer task force and have deployed a platoon of Italian military police. Italy leads the Regional Command West in Afghanistan, and its HQ is located in Herat at Camp Arena base. Italian Air Force deployed about 30 aircraft, both helicopters and planes: four AMX Ghibli and two RQ-1A Predator that are used in close air support and intelligence missions, Alenia C-27J Spartan, Boeing CH-47C Chinook, NH90 and Lockheed C-130 Hercules, which are used in transport missions; Bell UH-1N Twin Huey and Agusta A129CBT Mangusta are used in missions of fire support to the troops.


title: Italian Army

text: The Italian Army did not take part in combat operations of the 2003 Second Gulf War, dispatching troops only after May 1, 2003 – when major combat operations were declared over by the U.S. President George W. Bush. Subsequently, Italian troops arrived in the late summer of 2003 and began patrolling Nasiriyah and the surrounding area. On 26 May 2006, Italian foreign minister Massimo d'Alema announced that the Italian forces would be reduced to 1,600 by June. As of June 2006, 32 Italian troops have been killed in Iraq – with the greatest single loss of life coming on November 12, 2003 – a suicide car bombing of the Italian Carabinieri Corps HQ left a dozen Carabinieri, five Army soldiers, two Italian and eight Iraqi civilians dead.


title: Italian Army

text: As of 2006, Italy ranks third in the world in the number of deployed military forces operating in peacekeeping and peace-enforcing scenarios Afghanistan, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Lebanon, behind only to the United States and the United Kingdom.


title: Italian Army

text: A recent law promoted recruitment in the Italian Army, giving volunteers a chance to find post-service careers in the Carabinieri, Italian State Police, Italian Finance Police, State Forestry Department, Fire Department and other state bodies.


title: Cosworth

text: Cosworth is a British automotive engineering company founded in London in 1958, specialising in high-performance internal combustion engines, powertrain, and electronics; for automobile racing (motorsport) and mainstream automotive industries. Cosworth is based in Northampton, England, with American facilities in Indianapolis and Mooresville, North Carolina.


title: Cosworth

text: Cosworth has collected 176 wins in Formula One (F1) as engine supplier, ranking third with most wins, behind Ferrari and Mercedes.


title: Cosworth

text: The company was founded as a British racing internal combustion engine maker in 1958 by Mike Costin and Keith Duckworth. Its company name, "Cosworth", was derived as a portmanteau of the surnames of its two founders (Costin and Duckworth).


title: Cosworth

text: Both of the co-founders were former employees of Lotus Engineering Ltd., and Cosworth initially maintained a strong relationship with Colin Chapman; and initial revenues of the company came almost exclusively from Lotus. When the company was founded in 1958, Duckworth left Lotus, leaving Costin (who had signed a term-employment contract with Chapman) at the company. Until 1962, Costin worked on Cosworth projects in his private time, while being active as a key Lotus engineer on the development of Lotus 15 through 26 (Elan), as well as leading the Team Lotus contingent at foreign races, as evidenced by the 1962 Le Mans Lotus scandal.


title: Cosworth

text: Initial series production engines (Mk.II, Mk.V, Mk.VIII, and Mk.XIV) were sold to Lotus exclusively, and many of the other racing engines up to Mk.XII were delivered to Team Lotus. The success of Formula Junior engines (Mk.III, IV, XI, and XVII) started bringing in non-Lotus revenues, and the establishment of Formula B by the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) allowed the financial foundation of Cosworth to be secured by the increased sales of Mk.XIII, a pure racing engine based on Lotus TwinCam, through its domination of the class. This newly found security enabled the company to distance itself from the Lotus Mk.VII and Elan optional road engine assembly business, and allowed its resources to be concentrated on racing engine development.


title: Cosworth

text: The first Cosworth-designed cylinder head was for SCA series; with a single overhead camshaft (SOHC) reverse-flow configuration, similar to the Coventry Climax FWE engine. A real success was achieved with the next gear-driven double overhead camshaft (DOHC) four-valve FVA in 1966, when Cosworth, with a help from Chapman, convinced Ford to purchase the rights to the design, and sign a development contract – including an eight-cylinder version. This resulted in the DFV, which dominated Formula One for many years.


title: Cosworth

text: From this time on, Cosworth was supported by Ford for many years, and many of the Cosworth designs were owned by Ford and named as Ford engines under similar contracts. Another success by the BD series in the 1970s put Cosworth on a growing track.


title: Cosworth

text: Cosworth then went through a number of ownership changes. After Duckworth decided he did not want to be involved with the day-to-day business of running a growing company, he sold out the ownership to United Engineering Industries (UEI) in 1980, retaining his life presidency and day-to-day technical involvement with Cosworth, and becoming a UEI board director; UEI was a group of small- to medium-sized technology companies, which was taken over by Carlton Communications in 1988 – Carlton was primarily interested in some of the audio-visual companies in the UEI portfolio, and Cosworth was a poor fit with these; a new buyer for the company in the engineering/automotive sector was sought, and the traditional engineering company Vickers plc bought Cosworth in 1990.


title: Cosworth

text: In September 1998, Vickers sold Cosworth to Audi. Audi kept the engineering, manufacturing and casting unit which it called Cosworth Technology and sold the race engine division, Cosworth Racing, and its electronics division, Pi Research, to Ford. In December 2004, Audi announced that it sold Cosworth Technology to Mahle GmbH. Cosworth Technology was then renamed as MAHLE Powertrain on 1 July 2005.


title: Cosworth

text: On 15 November 2004 Ford sold Cosworth Racing to Champ Car World Series owners Gerald Forsythe and Kevin Kalkhoven. In December 2004, Ford also sold Pi Research to Kalkhoven and Forsythe, creating the current Cosworth Group.


title: Cosworth

text: Since 2006, Cosworth has diversified to provide engineering consultancy, high performance electronics, and component manufacture services outside of its classic motorsport customer base. On 25 February 2008, Cosworth was awarded a $5.4 million contract by the United States Navy to develop a heavy fuel engine for their RQ-21A Blackjack unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).


title: Cosworth

text: Staying true to the company roots, Cosworth established an engineering partnership with Aston Martin on one of the world's most powerful hybrid electric road car engines for the Aston Martin Valkyrie. Their naturally-aspirated 6.5-litre V12 engine develops at 10,500 rpm, and 740 N⋅m (546 lbf⋅ft) of torque at 7,000 rpm, setting a new standard for maximum rpm and weight


title: Cosworth

text: Cosworth supplied its last premier class racing engines to one F1 team in 2013, the Marussia F1 Team.<ref name="Cosworth.com/sport/f1"></ref>


title: Cosworth

text: The following is the list of initial products, with cylinder heads modified, but not originally designed by Cosworth, on Ford Kent engine cylinder blocks. The exceptions were Mk.XVII and MAE (modified Anglia engine), which had intake port sleeves for downdraft carburettors brazed into the stock cast iron cylinder head, in place of the normal side draft ports, thus could be considered Cosworth designs.


title: Cosworth

text: In addition to the above, Cosworth designed and provided the assembly work for Lotus Elan Special Equipment optional road engines with special camshafts and high compression pistons.


title: Cosworth

text: The final model of the above initial series was the "MAE" in 1965, when new rules were introduced in Formula 3 allowing up to engines with 36 mm intake restrictor plates. MAE used one barrel of a two barrel Weber IDA downdraft carburettor with the other barrel blanked off. The domination of this engine was absolute as long as these regulations lasted until 1968. As Cosworth had a serious difficulty meeting the demand, the MAE was mainly sold as a kit. This experience led to the later FVA/DFV contract to be drawn where the responsibility of development rested with Cosworth, and the manufacturing right and responsibility rested with Ford. There also were some specially cast iron heads with similar dimensions to these brazed heads with titanium alloy valve spring retainers called the "screamer head" for MAE in later years.


title: Cosworth

text: A year before the introduction of the MAE, the single overhead cam two valve SCA was introduced. It was a 997 cc engine based on Ford Cortina 116E block that was designed for Formula 2, and featured the first totally Cosworth-designed head, Laystall forged crankshaft, steel main bearing caps and pistons with only one compression ring and one oil scraper ring each. Cylinder head to block sealing was by a head gasket incorporating Cooper Rings. The basic configuration was quite similar to Coventry Climax FWE on Lotus Elite including its SOHC reverse-flow design, except for a series of seven spur gears (one on the crank, two intermediary gears on two fixed shafts mounted on the front cover back plate, one on the 116E camshaft used as a jackshaft, two on a common fixed shaft in the head, and one on the camshaft) driving a five-bearing camshaft and the Ford five main bearing iron block. The intake ports and the oil scavenge pickup for dry sump lubrication were canted 25 degrees, so they faced straight up and down, respectively, when the engine was mounted 25 degrees from vertical to the right for a lower centre of gravity.


title: Cosworth

text: The SCA initially had two 40DCM2 Weber twin-choke downdraft sand-cast carburettors mounted on top to produce 115 hp, which was replaced by Lucas fuel injection in 1966, eventually reaching 140 hp.


title: Cosworth

text: The longer stroke SCB was built to compare against the 1,498 cc Mk.XVI, and upon proving its superior power against the Mundy-designed two-valve crossflow DOHC head, it acted as the benchmark for the development of FVA to measure the benefits and shortcomings of a four valve crossflow DOHC design. It was the results of this four valve development work that formed the basis for many of the Cosworth engines that followed.


title: Cosworth

text: A larger 85 mm bore SCC with the same short-stroke five-bearing crankshaft as the SCA was built and sold for SCCA 1.1 litre sports car class.


title: Cosworth

text: The Cortina Crossflow block was also the basis for the FVA (four valve Type A), an F2 engine introduced in 1966, and developed under the same contract as the DFV, for the new 1.6-litre engine rules. This engine featured 16 valves operated by twin overhead camshafts driven by a train of 9 gears. The metering unit for the Lucas mechanical fuel injection was rotated by a toothed belt from the gear-driven inlet cam, while the exhaust cam directly drove an alternator on the rear of the head. It produced at 9000 rpm. This engine dominated the category until 1971, and was also used in sports car racing in 1.8 Litre form as the "FVC".


title: Cosworth

text: The cylinder head on the FVA pioneered many of Duckworth's ideas that would be used on the DFV and a mule for the eight-cylinder engine development, FVB, was built. However, the distance between the two camshafts and the valve inclination angle were larger than on DFV for the series.


title: Cosworth

text: The larger displacement FVD was designed and released for endurance racing in 1975, that displaced on the aluminium block developed for BDG. The FVD produced only , down from the that other twin-cam four cylinders such as the Hart 420S produced but was more reliable. One was campaigned in the CanAm series in 1978 in the Osprey SR-1, built and driven by Dan Hartill.


title: Cosworth

text: In 1966, Colin Chapman (Lotus Cars founder and principal of Team Lotus) persuaded Ford to bankroll Keith Duckworth's design for a new lightweight Formula One engine. Cosworth received the order along with the £100,000 that Ford felt it adequate to spend on such an objective. The contract stipulated that a four-cylinder Ford-based F2 engine would be developed as proof of concept (see the FVA above) and that a pure Cosworth V8 would be built based on this.


title: Cosworth

text: The DFV design used a similar cylinder head to the one Duckworth had prototyped on the four-cylinder FVB unit on a custom Cosworth cylinder block and crankcase, forming a single 90° V8 engine, thus creating a legend in its own right, the DFV – meaning "Double Four Valve". This engine and its derivatives were used for a quarter of a century, and it was the most successful in the history of Formula One / Grand Prix motor racing. Winning 167 races in a career lasting over 20 years, it was the product that put Cosworth Engineering on the map. Although originally designed for Formula One, the engine has been modified to be used in a range of categories.


title: Cosworth

text: The DFV won on its first outing, at the 1967 Dutch Grand Prix in the hands of Jim Clark, fitted to a Lotus 49, and from 1968 was available for purchase to any F1 team that wished it. During the 1970s, it was common for almost the entire field (with the notable exception of Ferrari) to use one of these engines – this at a time when independent wealthy individuals could buy exactly the same engine off the shelf that was also being used by McLaren et al. Most teams just built a tub around a Cosworth DFV and a Hewland gearbox. It won a record 155 World Championship races, the last being Detroit in 1983, powering a Tyrrell driven by Michele Alboreto.


title: Cosworth

text: Although the DFV (bore: , stroke: , displacement: ) with at 9,000 rpm did not produce as much power as some of its rival 12-cylinder engines, it was lighter, resulting in a better power to weight ratio. In addition to being lighter, it was also made a structural part of the car itself, by placing load bearing arms to stress the block. These design aspects appealed tremendously to the genius of Colin Chapman who used them to the fullest extent.


title: Cosworth

text: The DFY, introduced in 1982 was a further evolution of the DFV for Formula One, with a shorter stroke and a DFL bore (bore: , stroke: , displacement ) with at 11,000 rpm, thereby producing more power, but still unable to fight against the turbocharged cars of the day. It was the advent of turbocharged engines in Formula One which sounded the death knell for the venerable DFV, and in 1986 Cosworth returned to the lower formulae preparing the DFV for the newly created Formula 3000, with the installation of a compulsory 9,000 rpm rev limiter, which scaled power back from 500 to ; the DFV remained in this class until 1992 and the DFY until 1995. By this time the Cosworth AC V8 replaced the DFV/Y in F3000 and was the dominant engine in the class until it became a spec-series in 1996 using a Zytek-Judd V8. The final F3000 engines gave , almost equalling the 1983 DFV which gave at 11,200 rpm.


title: Cosworth

text: In Formula One, a new DFV-based design was introduced for the new normally aspirated rules in 1987. The DFZ was produced as an interim model, but in 1988 Cosworth created the DFV's final evolution, the DFR, which soldiered on in F1 with smaller teams until 1991, scoring its last points – including a pair of second places by Jean Alesi – with Tyrrell in 1990.


title: Cosworth

text: The DFV has recently been given a new lease of life as a result of interest in Classic F1 racing, which was given a World Championship status by the FIA in 2004.


title: Cosworth

text: The DFV spawned a number of derivations. In 1968; Cosworth created the DFV's first derivation, a version for the Tasman Series, the DFW. DFV to DFW conversion simply involved substitution of a short-stroke crank and longer connecting rods.


title: Cosworth

text: One of the most successful and longest-lived projects of Cosworth has been its CART / Champ Car engine programme. In 1975; Cosworth developed the DFX, by destroking the engine to and adding a turbocharger, the DFX became the standard engine to run in IndyCar racing, ending the reign of the Offenhauser, and maintaining that position until the late 1980s. Ford backed Cosworth with creating a new interim design for IndyCar racing in the late 1980s, the DFS, which merged DFR technology into the ageing DFX design, but it was eventually rendered obsolete by advancing technology.


title: Cosworth

text: While designed as an F1 engine, the DFV was also used as in endurance racing, although its flat-plane crank design led to destructive vibrations putting stress on devices surrounding the engine, especially the exhaust system. The first sports car to use a DFV, the Ford P68, failed to finish a single race because of repeated mechanical and electrical failures. Despite this handicap the DFV won the 24 hours of Le Mans twice in its original 3.0 Litre form for Mirage and Rondeau, who were able to attain sufficient reliability by de-tuning the motor.


title: Cosworth

text: The DFL for endurance racing was developed for the 1982 season to replace the DFV. It came in two versions: one with and the other with . While neither competed well in the Group C (C1 Class) the former was adapted to the C2 Class (700 kg minimum weight, 55 Litres fuel, 5 refuelings/1000 km) starting in 1984. During the latter half of the 1980s it was the most popular motor for that class, with successful championship campaigns and five class wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The latter version's severe lack of reliability caused it to fall out of use by 1985.


title: Cosworth

text: Cosworth solidified its association with Ford in 1969, by developing a double overhead camshaft (DOHC) 16-valve inline four-cylinder engine for road use in the Ford Escort. As Keith Duckworth was busy designing and developing the DFV, the project was assigned to Mike Hall, who created the 1601 cc BDA on the Ford Kent engine block for homologation purposes. The camshafts were driven by a toothed belt developed for Fiat 124, hence the name BDA, literally meaning "Belt Drive, A type". It was designed for FIA Group 2 and Group 4 on either rallying or touring car racing purpose. The nominal homologation at 1601 cc capacity meant that BDA-engined cars competed in what was usually the top class (1600 cc and up) so were eligible for overall victories rather than class wins.


title: Cosworth

text: In 1970, the 1701 cc BDB was created for the Escort RS1600, and this engine received fuel injection for the first time in the series as 1701 cc BDC. Two years later, the BDA series was adopted for Formula 2; first came the 1790 cc BDE, then the 1927 cc BDF eventually reaching a maximum of 1975 cc BDG in 1973. As the bore size reached ever closer to the bore centre distance, leaving little space in between cylinders, all three types had brazed-in cylinder liners to the block. As a departure from the Ford iron block, the BDG received a new aluminium block (originally designed by Brian Hart in 1971 and re-engineered by Cosworth) soon after, and this cylinder block was used as a replacement part in rebuilding many other BD series engines as well as some Mk.XIII engines.


title: Cosworth

text: The iron block was also used for smaller displacements; starting with the very successful 1599 cc Formula Atlantic BDD in 1970, followed by the 1098 cc BDJ and 1300 cc BDH variants for SCCA Formula C and sports car racing, respectively. There was even a one-off 785 cc version built by Cosworth employees Paul Squires and Phil Kidsley; fitted with a Lysholm supercharger it was installed in a Brabham BT28 Formula 3 chassis and competed in the British Hill Climb Championship as the Brabham-Lysholm.


title: Cosworth

text: In 1970, Ford asked Weslake and Co of Rye, East Sussex to build the BDD for them, and by the end of 1970, the production line was installed at Rye and production was under way. These engines were often called the 'BDA', but were 1599 cc BDDs eligible for under 1.6 Litre class.


title: Cosworth

text: The 1599 cc BDD engine won a number of championships around the world in Formula Atlantic and Formula Pacific during the 1980s.


title: Cosworth

text: In 1975, 1599 cc big valve BDM (225 bhp) was developed with fuel injection for Formula Atlantic, and a 'sealed engine' version BDN (1599 cc, 210 bhp) followed in 1977 for Canadian Formula Atlantic series.


title: Cosworth

text: Largely known as 'Cosworth BDA', BDD and BDM were also very successful in Formula Pacific and Formula Mondial racing in Australia and New Zealand. In open wheel racing, Cosworth powered cars (Ralt RT4 and Tiga's) won Australian Drivers' Championship in 1982–1986 as well as winning the Australian Grand Prix in 1981–1984 (including wins by Alain Prost and Roberto Moreno) before the race became part of the Formula One World Championship in 1985, and won the New Zealand Grand Prix each year from 1982 to 1988. BDD and BDM engines were also prominent in the Australian Sports Car Championship during the 1980s, winning the 1987 championship.


title: Cosworth

text: The turbo charged 1778 cc BDT was created in 1981, which powered the never-raced RWD Escort RS1700T. In 1984, 4WD Ford RS200 debuted with a 1803 cc version of BDT, which was created for Group B rallying. Between 1984 and 1986 the BDT engine was used in Group C endurance racing by Roy Baker, in class C2 using the Tiga GC284, GC285 and GC286. Later in 1986, a 2137 cc version was created by Brian Hart using a bespoke aluminium block and a large intercooler for RS200 Evolution, just as Group B was cancelled by the FIA. This BDT-E ('E' for Evolution) produced over in Group B 'rallycross' boost level, normally producing on a lower but sustainable boost.


title: Cosworth

text: In 1983, the BD series saw its second road engine incarnation (the first being the original BDA and BDB), the BDR, which was a BDA or BDB sold in kit form for the Caterham Super Seven in 1601 cc (120 bhp) and in 1701 cc (130 bhp) formats.


title: Cosworth

text: The Hart 420R and the Zakspeed F1 engines owe much to the BDA series, being essentially an aluminium-block derivative using similar heads.


title: Cosworth

text: A fuel-injected belt-driven DOHC GA (also called the GAA) was based on the 60 degree V6 block of Ford Essex, and was used for the Ford Capris raced in Group 2 in the early 1970s. This had a capacity of , and was highly competitive against the BMW straight-sixes. The GA was also used in the later years of Formula 5000 in Europe.


title: Cosworth

text: The GA or GAA was commissioned by Ford in May 1972, when Ford realised that the Cologne V6 based Weslake OHV V6 engines used in their Capris which competed in the European Touring Car Championship had been modified to the point that no more performance could be extracted from them. Mike Hall, who had already designed the highly successful Cosworth DFV and BDA engines, took on the task of developing a whole new engine based on the 3-Litre Essex V6 block.


title: Cosworth

text: The new engine was radically different from the previously-used Weslake unit in that it featured twin overhead camshaft aluminium alloy cylinder heads, 4 valves per cylinder, a Lucas mechanical fuel injection system, dry sump oiling system, a steel crankshaft, and enlarged displacement of 3412cc, compared with the 2.9  litres of the previously used Cologne V6 based Weslake V6.


title: Cosworth

text: Ford expected a minimum of 400 Hp from the new Cosworth engine; that figure was exceeded, with the engine producing 420 Hp in the first test run. In race tune they finally produced around 462 bhp (345 kW; 468 PS) at 9000 rpm and 300 ft-lb of torque (407 Nm). This meant that the new engine proved highly successful at competing against BMW in the 1973 Season of the European Touring Car Championship where the engine was installed in Ford's newly homologated Capri RS 3100.


title: Cosworth

text: The FBA and FBC engines were found in the Ford Granada and Ford Scorpio. The FBA came first in 1991 and was also known as the 'BOA'; it was based on the Ford Cologne V6 used in the Ford Sierra and Ford Capri and other models and was a twin overhead camshaft 24valve conversion for more power, producing and better idle quality.


title: Cosworth

text: In 1995, with a new version of the Scorpio, it was upgraded with a wider torque spread and higher power – to , from a variable intake system and reprofiled cams. The NVH was improved with a change from a single chain to drive all four camshafts – to one chain to drive one bank of cams and a second for the other bank; this engine was known as the 'BOB'.


title: Cosworth

text: A racing version was also available for a short time – FBE – with an individual throttle butterfly for each cylinder.


title: Cosworth

text: The two production engines were always mated to an automatic gearbox but have become popular in the custom car scene where they have been mated to the 4x4 manual transmission and the rear-wheel-drive manual transmission from the Ford Sierra XR4 and XR4x4. There are also companies that offer twin and single turbo conversions, and other modifications to increase power to usually around . These engines can be bought relatively cheaply and, providing they are well serviced, engines have been known to cover over 200,000 miles without major work being required.


title: Cosworth

text: The YB series of engines are based on the older inline-4 Ford T88 engine block, and were introduced in the road-going Ford Sierra RS Cosworth in 1986 with . With 5,000 units built for homologation purposes in Group A, both for rallies and touring cars. Racing versions of the RS Cosworth were developing around , but with the small Garrett T3 turbo on the cars reliability was a problem. A limited edition evolution model was introduced in mid-1987, the Sierra RS500 which included a bigger T4 turbo, with power initially at around the mark in 1987, but in later years climbing to close to some in full racing trim.


title: Cosworth

text: The RS500 came to dominate touring car racing in its heyday from 1987 to 1992, winning multiple championships and major races in Europe including the ETCC, Britain and DTM (German), as well as Japan, Australia and New Zealand. This included wins in the five major races, the Spa 24 Hours held at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, the Bathurst 1000 at Mount Panorama in Australia, the RAC Tourist Trophy at Silverstone in England, the Wellington 500 street race in New Zealand, and the InterTEC 500 at Fuji in Japan. The only car to truly challenge the Sierra's dominance towards the end of the Group A era in 1990–1992 was the , 4WD twin turbo Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R.


title: Cosworth

text: At the end of its life in Group A in 1992, the Australian Sierra teams were reportedly getting around from the 2.0L turbocharged YB engines. For his pole position lap at the 1992 Bathurst 1000, Australian driver Dick Johnson (whose team since 1988 had a reputation for having the fastest Sierras in Group A racing anywhere in the world) was reportedly running a special qualifying engine that was producing close to in his RS500.


title: Cosworth

text: The various colour cam covers that distinguished each version were as follows: Red: YBB (Sierra Cosworth 2wd, both 3-door and Sapphire), YBD (Sierra RS500), YBJ (Sierra Sapphire 4wd, non cat); Green: YBG (catalyst equipped 4x4 Sierra Sapphire Cosworth); Blue: YBT (large-turbo Escort Cosworth); Silver: YBP (small-turbo Escort Cosworth).


title: Cosworth

text: Further evolutions of the YB included a reduced-emissions road version, as well as the block used in the Escort RS Cosworth (which used the Sierra floorpan). The engine stopped being used on new cars in 1997, with the Focus WRC and road-going Focus RS instead relying on Zetec designs.


title: Cosworth

text: Cosworth experimented with turbocharged BD derivatives, before settling on an all-new turbocharged V6 engine to be badged as the Ford TEC (internally it was known as the GB-series). This had a long development history dating back to the 1984 British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch where Cosworth and Ford's competition department agreed to build a new turbo engine to replace the outdated DFV / DFY series. The TEC raced only briefly, in , with the Haas Lola team and in with the Benetton team. The development of the GBA engine at Cosworth became the subject of a British TV documentary in Channel Four's "Equinox" series, broadcast in 1986.


title: Cosworth

text: The GBA was designed by Keith Duckworth and Geoff Goddard, though many in Formula One doubted Duckworth's ability to design another truly competitive engine due to his known distaste for turbocharging in general. Rather than design an entirely new engine, Duckworth instead chose to originally try and develop an old, modified 4 cylinder BDA sports car engine as he believed 4 cylinder engines were more compact and economical than a V6 (Cosworth's chief race engine designer Geoff Goddard was against the idea of the straight 4, but reluctantly let Duckworth go down that path). However, after numerous failures of the test engines on the dynamometer which were eventually traced to an incurable vibration at the crankshaft, Duckworth and Goddard designed an all new 120° V6 engine instead, the same configuration as the Ferrari V6 turbo engine used from 1981 to 1986. The BDA engine was originally limited to 10,000 RPM in sports car racing, but with a turbo its failures generally happened at around 11,000 RPM. The first 4-cylinder test engine was so badly damaged that it actually changed the shape of the engine block to the point where the crankshaft would not move- the engine was simply not designed to be turbocharged. As around 4 months had been lost in trying to get the 4 cylinder engine to work, Ford and Cosworth's plan for the engine to debut with Haas Lola in was pushed back to the 1986 season.


title: Cosworth

text: The GBA engine was first road tested by Haas Lola's lead driver, World Champion Alan Jones in the new Lola THL2 at the Boreham Circuit in Essex just north-east of London on 21 February 1986. In freezing, snowy conditions (−6° Celsius) at approximately 10 AM, the V6 turbo, running a conservative 2.5 BAR boost setting, ran cleanly although the engine management electronics developed by Motorola in the United States and Cosworth had not yet been finalised and the engine ran with the same electronics that were used on the dynamometer. Also present at the test were Duckworth, Goddard, the THL2's designer Neil Oatley, the teams #2 driver Patrick Tambay and other staff from both Haas Lola, Ford and Cosworth.


title: Cosworth

text: The engine made its Formula One debut with Jones driving the Lola THL2 at the 1986 San Marino Grand Prix, the third round of the 1986 season (for the opening two races in Brazil and Spain, the team used their 1985 car, the Hart 415-T turbo powered Lola THL1, while Tambay also drove the THL1 at Imola). Jones qualified in 21st place and retired after 28 of the races 60 laps due to overheating. Jones also recorded the engine's first finish when he placed 11th in the Belgian Grand Prix. Jones and teammate Patrick Tambay captured the Ford V6 turbo's first ever points when they finished 4th and 5th respectively in the Austrian Grand Prix, with Jones backing up in the next race in Italy with a 6th-placed finish, the final points the engine would gain in 1986.


title: Cosworth

text: Producing approximately , the turbocharged V6 is the most powerful Formula One engine designed and built by Cosworth. With Haas Lola not competing in 1987, Benetton, having lost the use of the 4 cylinder BMW engines when the German giant pulled out of Formula One, signed with Ford to race their V6 for the season. While in 1986 turbo boost had been unrestricted by the rules, 1987 saw the FIA introduce the pop-off valve to the turbocharged engines in a two-year plan to outlaw the turbos and make all Formula One engines 3.5 litres and naturally aspirated by the start of the season. While Cosworth adapted the TEC to 1987's 4.0 Bar turbo limit and the new 195 litre fuel limit, development of the V6 turbo engine which would be obsolete in less than two years virtually stopped. Cosworth instead worked on the DFR V8 that was introduced with Benetton in .


title: Cosworth

text: With the reduction in turbo boost limit not affecting the Ford V6 as much as others such as Honda, BMW and Ferrari which had more horsepower to lose, the turbo engine would be more competitive with Benetton in 1987, with Teo Fabi taking the engine's first podium with third in Austria, followed by its last podium when Thierry Boutsen also scored third in the last race of the season in Australia.


title: Cosworth

text: The HB DFV/DFZ/DFR replacement was designed by Geoff Goddard as a (96 mm x 60.4 mm) V8, introduced with the Benetton team midway through 1989, making its debut at the French Grand Prix. It won the Japanese Grand Prix that year (Benetton used both the original HBA1 and the development HBA4 in 1989).


title: Cosworth

text: As Ford's de facto works team, Benetton maintained exclusivity with this model through the rest of 1989 and . saw the introduction of customer units, two specifications behind their works equivalents. In 1991, these were supplied to the fledgling Jordan Grand Prix outfit, and for 1992, Lotus. saw the customer deal extended to McLaren who had lost the use of their Honda V12 engines after 1992. Using the customer HBA7 (and later a customer HBA8), McLaren won five Grands Prix with triple World Champion Ayrton Senna that year.


title: Cosworth

text: The HBA1 V8 was introduced in 1989. It exploited a narrower 75° vee-angle rather than the 90° used in the DFV series, and was originally rated at approximately . By 1993, the factory HBA8 V8 engine used by Benetton was producing approximately at 13,000 rpm. Although the HB V8 was less powerful than the V10s and V12s used by rivals Renault, Honda, and Ferrari, its advantage was that it was lighter and gave better fuel economy.


title: Cosworth

text: A Jaguar-badged version of the HB was developed by Tom Walkinshaw Racing to the tune of 650 bhp at 11,500 rpm for sports car racing, fitted to the extremely successful Jaguar XJR-14.


title: Cosworth

text: The HB was developed into the (100 mm x 55.7 mm) EC V8 for the 1994 season. This engine, producing about 740 bhp @ 14,500rpm, was badged as Ford Zetec-R, and Michael Schumacher won the Drivers' World Championship with Benetton (his first of a record 7 championships), in . This was the last Ford-powered F1 title.


title: Cosworth

text: For the 1995 season, the F1 engine regulation changed to 3 litres, and the EC's bore and stroke were changed to 94mm x 53.9mm, resulting in ECA, which was introduced at about 600 bhp, and developed to 610 to 630 bhp at 14,000rpm. It was exclusively used by the Sauber team, whose biggest success of the year was Heinz-Harald Frentzen's third place at Monza.


title: Cosworth

text: Customer unit Cosworth ED (not badged as Ford Zetec-R) for non-works teams was also made for 1995 with about 580 bhp for Simtek (called the EDB), Pacific Racing (EDC) and Forti (EDD) teams. Minard continued with Magneti Marelli engine management as per their HB in 1994, this version having the Cosworth designation EDM. At the first test with the EDM, Luca Badoer reported that this engine felt less powerful then the 3 litre 9000rpm rev limited engine he had used to win the F3000 championship in 1992. Cosworth later updated the ED to ED 2/4 for Tyrrell and Lola with (94mm x 53.95mm) displacement for 600 bhp, which was used until the end of season.


title: Cosworth

text: In order to produce a higher power at higher rpm, a completely new (89mm x 48.1mm) JD 72° V10 was designed for 1996, which produced about 670 bhp at 15,800 rpm, and used by Sauber Formula One team. This engine was further developed into VJ and VJM with the same V-angle, bore and stroke, reaching 720 bhp for racing, and 730 bhp for qualifying, at 16,500 rpm. All three of these engines were badged as Ford Zetec-R as well, and used by several teams. In its debut season, the best result was another third place, this time taken by Johnny Herbert at Monaco. This was surpassed one year later by Rubens Barichello's sensational second place, again at Monaco, which was the first points finish for the newly formed Stewart Grand Prix team.


title: Cosworth

text: The Stewart Grand Prix team effectively became the Ford works team, and used Cosworth CR-1 engines from its first season in 1997, which was a much lighter version of VJM, ultimately reaching 770 bhp at 16,500 rpm by 2001. Over the next few years Ford had increased its involvement with the Stewart team, and finally bought the team, renaming it Jaguar Racing for 2000. Ford pulled out of F1 at the end of 2004, but the team (bought by and renamed Red Bull Racing) continued to use Cosworth V10 engines until switching to a Ferrari V8 for 2006. Minardi also used re-badged Cosworth engines until 2005.


title: Cosworth

text: Williams began testing the new CA2006 2.4-litre V8 in November 2005, which produced about 755 bhp @ 19,250 rpm (314.7 hp/L), and began using Cosworth V8 engines for the 2006 season. In the same year, Scuderia Toro Rosso used detuned V10 engines based on the 2005 units.


title: Cosworth

text: In 2007, however, the company was left without a partner when Williams chose to switch to Toyota power, and Scuderia Toro Rosso made the switch to Ferrari engines (as used in 2006 by their mother team Red Bull Racing).


title: Cosworth

text: In Max Mosley's letter following the withdrawal of Honda from Formula One in December 2008, it was announced that Cosworth had won the tender to provide a standard engine to any interested participants. The new engine would become the standard design and manufacturers could opt to use whole units, construct their own from designs provided by Cosworth, or produce their own engine with the caveat that it be limited to the same power as the new "standard" engine.


title: Cosworth

text: In 2010 Cosworth returned as the engine supplier for Williams and three new teams; Hispania Racing, Lotus Racing and Virgin Racing. The CA2010 is the same 2.4-litre V8 base of the CA2006 used by Williams, but has been re-tuned for the then-mandated 18,000 rpm limit required on all engines, down from its original 20,000 rpm implementation. First units were ready and shipped to teams in mid-January for fitting 2 weeks prior to first track testing for the year.


title: Cosworth

text: Cosworth designed a series of replacements for the DFS to be used in IndyCar and Champ Car racing: the X-series, beginning in 1992 with the XB. The XF was developed for the 2000 season to replace the XD, and was chosen as the spec engine for the Champ Car World Series in 2003. The most recent derivative of the XF, the XFE quad-cam 90° V8 overhead camshaft, continued in that role through the 2007 season. The Champ Car World Series imposed a rev limit of 12,000 rpm down from the over 15,000 rpm of 2002. The 2004 model of the XFE had a rated power of nominal at 1,054 mmHg (intake boost pressure), and a maximum power of at 1130 mmHg (during Push-to-Pass). The 2004 XFE maximum speed was 12,000 rpm (rev limited) and torque of . The aluminium and iron turbo housing ran a boost of 5.9 psi at sea level (= boost of 12 inches of mercury which is 41.5 inches of mercury absolute). The Methanol-fuelled engine used a steel crankshaft and aluminium alloy pistons. Weight was and length was .


title: Cosworth

text: In 2007, the Ford name was removed from the engine pieces as the manufacturer elected not to continue sponsorship of the series. Several other engine changes were made, notably the removal of the calibrated "pop off valve" designed to limit turbo boost pressure, replaced by engine electronics. The rated life of the engine was between rebuilds. Engines were sent by the race teams to Cosworth for the rebuild. In 2007, Champ Car switched to the new Panoz DP01 chassis, which was said to provide better ducting of airflow into the engine. The Champ Car World Series merged into the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series prior to the 2008 season, and Cosworth does not currently provide engines to any American open wheel racing series.


title: Cosworth

text: There is evidence that Cosworth was working on a push-rod V8 along the lines of the Ilmor/Mercedes 500I to exploit the peculiar loophole in the Indianapolis 500 rules on the definition of the word "pushrod engine", permitting such engines with extremely short pushrods higher turbocharger boost – this was assigned a project code CD but seemingly never completed.


title: Cosworth

text: In mid-2003, Cosworth provided the 3.5 L V8 XG badged as a Chevrolet Gen 4 engine to IRL IndyCar Series teams after the proprietary Chevrolet Gen 3 engine proved inadequate against rival Hondas and Toyotas during the 2003 season. While many teams left Chevrolet after the 2003 season, those that stayed saw a significant improvement in performance with the new "Chevworth" engine compared to their previous units. The XG finished second in its first race at Michigan on July 27, 2003. Sam Hornish, Jr. went on to win 3 races that season with the new XG. The XG was reduced in size to 3 L for 2004 season and it won one race in 2005 during Chevrolet's final season in IRL.


title: Cosworth

text: Currently these are inline-four engines based on the Mazda MZR engine developed in cooperation with Mazda. Changes includes a billet crankshaft, barrel throttle bodies, new cylinder head with larger valves, pistons, con rods and camshafts. A detuned version, targeting club racers, is sold to the consumer market. This engine retains the standard crankshaft, and has a different cylinder head. Both engines are built by Cosworth in Torrance, California, under the guidance of newly appointed technical designer Wayne Merry (formerly of Cosworth in Worcester UK).


title: Cosworth

text: Best known in Europe for its relationship with Ford – in particular because of the Cosworth name in the vehicle title on the high-performance Ford Sierra RS Cosworth and Ford Escort RS Cosworth, but also in the creation of other Ford models; the Escort RS1600, Escort RS1800, RS200, and Scorpio 2.9i 24V.


title: Cosworth

text: In the US, the name has also appeared in the title of a road car (well before it did in Europe) as the Cosworth version of the Chevrolet Vega. Only 3,508 1975 and 1976 Cosworth Vegas were produced from March 1975 through 1976. The engine features the Vega sleeveless, aluminium-alloy block fitted with forged components. The twin-cam, 16-valve, aluminium cylinder head design was assisted by Cosworth, but Chevrolet did the development work. The engine features electronic ignition, Bendix electronic fuel injection, and stainless steel headers. The final US emissions standardised version produces 110 bhp. Cosworth's EA racing version was not successful due to engine block structural failures. Chevrolet later produced a heavy-duty 'off-road' block with thicker walls to better withstand the racing application, but by that time Cosworth had moved on. Projected first year sales of the Cosworth Vega had been 5,000. With only 3,508 cars produced and many unsold, the car was discontinued. 1,500 hand-built Cosworth Vega engines were simply scrapped for lack of demand.


title: Cosworth

text: Other published projects for Adam Opel AG include the Opel Ascona 400 / Manta 400 rally cars and the 2.0L 16V engines in the Opel Kadett, Opel Astra GSi, Opel Vectra and Opel Calibra turbo.


title: Cosworth

text: Other companies known to have benefitted from the Cosworth engineering input are Mercedes-Benz (with the 190 E 2.3-16) and Audi (notably their RS cars).


title: Cosworth

text: Cosworth's involvement with Mercedes-Benz came with moves in the mid-1980s from the German manufacturer to re-enter motorsport after retiring from direct factory participation after the 1955 Le Mans crash which killed 80 spectators. Mercedes-Benz was looking to create a Group B rally car out of its new W201 Chassis (190E Model) and turned to the expertise of Cosworth to shorten the development time for this project.


title: Cosworth

text: The request was a huge surprise for Cosworth, and the original brief for a 320 bhp engine based on the 136 bhp Mercedes M102 2.3-litre SOHC 4-cylinder engine was duly passed to Mike Hall, who "drew the famed DFV and BDA engine". Designed around the existing M102 head bolt pattern, the new twin cam, 16-valve, pentroof head, had its valves set at 45° included angle, rather than the 40° angle of the BDA. The valves were the biggest that could be fitted into the combustion chamber. Flat top pistons delivered the 10.5:1 compression ratio. The new Cosworth WAA engine also was Cosworth's first one-piece head, i.e. the camshaft carrier was cast integral with the head itself. Again the constraints of the existing head-bolt pattern meant that Hall had to shift the camshaft bearings from outside each pair of camlobes as in the BDA to in between each cylinder's pair of cam lobes. The upside being that this configuration made for less flex at high rpm.


title: Cosworth

text: The advent of the AWD turbo Audi Quattro gave the rear-wheel-drive, normally aspirated 190E rally car no chance of being successful and the competition car was stillborn. Instead Mercedes-Benz decided to recoup its development cost by selling the car as a road going sports-sedan. Hall detuned the WAA race engine to 185 bhp by reducing the port diameters and a more restrictive fuel injection and induction was substituted for the race items to complete the detune. All WAA 2.3-16 engines were built in the Cosworth factory with the heads being produced by the Coscast method.


title: Cosworth

text: Cosworth assisted with the later 2.5-16 engine (WAB), and the short-stroke 2.5-16 Evo engines (WAC) although these were all manufactured in house by Mercedes-Benz. The 190E 2.3-16 became the basis for privateer Mercedes entries into the DTM from 1988. The short-stroke 2.5-16 190E EVO II was race-developed to 375+ bhp, gaining the 1992 DTM crown with Klaus Ludwig at the wheel.


title: Cosworth

text: A V10 designated WDA was also built and tested in a Volvo S80 in 1997, but this did not see production.


title: Cosworth

text: In 2020, Gordon Murray Automotive commissioned Cosworth to design and build a V12 for use in their new T.50 sports car; which produces at 11,500 rpm, and of torque at 9,000 rpm.


title: Cosworth

text: Cosworth made an attempt at designing a full Formula One Grand Prix car in 1969. The car, designed by Robin Herd, used an original 4WD transmission designed by Keith Duckworth (different from the Ferguson used by all other 4WD F1 cars of the 1960s) and powered by a magnesium version of the DFV unit. The car was planned to drive at the 1969 British Grand Prix, but it was silently withdrawn. When Herd left to form March Engineering, the project was cancelled. The external design of the car was a product of Herd's use of Mallite sheeting (a wood-aluminium laminate composite) for the principal structural monocoque sections, a technique he pioneered on the first McLaren single-seat cars, including the McLaren M2B of 1966.


title: Collin Sexton

text: Collin Darnell Sexton (born January 4, 1999) is an American professional basketball player for the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Alabama Crimson Tide. In January 2017 Sexton was selected as a McDonald's All-American. Nicknamed the "Young Bull", he was selected with the 8th pick in the 2018 NBA draft by the Cavaliers.


title: Collin Sexton

text: Collin is the son of Darnell and Gia Sexton. He has older brother, Jordan, and one older sister, Giuana. He started playing basketball when he was three years old.


title: Collin Sexton

text: Collin first attended Hillgrove High School in Powder Springs, Georgia before transferring to Pebblebrook High School in Mableton, Georgia prior to his junior year and helped the Falcons to a 2016 Georgia Region 3-6A title and the 2016 Georgia Class 6A state championship game; while averaging 23 points, 7.4 rebounds and 2.9 assists.


title: Collin Sexton

text: Sexton was rated as a five-star recruit and considered one of the best players in the 2017 recruiting class by Scout.com, Rivals.com and ESPN. Sexton was ranked as the No.7 overall recruit and No.2 point guard in the 2017 high school class. On November 10, 2016, Sexton committed to the Alabama Crimson Tide, on the same day he signed his letter of intent (LOI).


title: Collin Sexton

text: Collin Sexton attended the University of Alabama, playing for coach Avery Johnson. On November 25, 2017, he scored 40 points while playing shorthanded (3-on-5) during most of the second half in a loss to the University of Minnesota. In the opening game of the SEC tournament, Collin Sexton scored 27 points against Texas A&M including the game winning buzzer-beater, then 31 points in a quarterfinal win over #1 seed Auburn, and 21 points against Kentucky in a loss during the semifinals. Collin Sexton was named to the All-tournament team after averaging 26.3 ppg, 3 apg, and 5 rpg in 3 games.


title: Collin Sexton

text: Following Alabama's loss in the 2018 NCAA men's basketball tournament, Sexton announced his intention to forgo his final three seasons of collegiate eligibility and declare for the 2018 NBA draft, where he was expected to be a first round selection.


title: Collin Sexton

text: Before Alabama's exhibition game on November 6, 2017, the school announced that Sexton would not play due to eligibility concerns. These concerns stem from Alabama director of basketball operations Kobie Baker's resignation following an internal investigation after the announcement of an FBI investigation into college basketball corruption. Sexton would, however, make his debut with Alabama on November 14 in a win against Lipscomb University. Later on in February 2018, Sexton's name would pop up as one of the names implicated with the NCAA scandal of receiving payments or dinners. His name was once again cleared.


title: Collin Sexton

text: On June 21, 2018, Sexton was selected with the eighth overall pick by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2018 NBA draft. The Cavaliers had acquired the Nets’ pick from the Celtics via the Kyrie Irving trade the previous summer, who had acquired it initially in 2014 as part of the blockbuster trade of Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, among others.. He was the highest-selected player from Alabama since Antonio McDyess in 1995. On July 6, 2018, Sexton made his NBA Summer League debut. He recorded 15 points to go along with 7 rebounds. On October 17, 2018, Sexton made his NBA debut, coming off the bench for the Cleveland Cavaliers with nine points and three rebounds in a 104–116 loss to the Toronto Raptors. On November 24, 2018, Sexton scored a then career high 29 points against the Houston Rockets in a 117–108 victory. On December 9, 2018, he scored a season-high 29 points against the Washington Wizards in a 116–101 victory. On March 8, 2019, Sexton passed Kyrie Irving for 3 pointers made as a Cavs rookie with 76 against the Miami Heat. He also eclipsed 1,000 career points. On March 11, 2019, Sexton had 28 points against the Toronto Raptors in a 126–101 victory, to go along with 5 assists and 4 rebounds. In the week of March 8, 2019, Sexton had the best week of his rookie campaign, averaging 26.0 points, 3.8 assists, and 2.5 rebounds. During a stretch from March 8 to 22, he became the first rookie to score 23+ points in seven consecutive games since Tim Duncan in 1998, as well the only rookie in franchise history to successively score at least 23 points. Additionally, he is the only rookie in NBA history to have played at least 2,000 minutes while scoring over 16 points per game on over 40% 3-point accuracy and fewer than 3 turnovers. He was named to the Rising Stars Game at the 2020 NBA All-Star Weekend as a replacement for injured Miami Heat rookie Tyler Herro, where he put up 21 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists for Team USA.


title: Collin Sexton

text: On January 20, 2021, Sexton set a new career high of 42 points in a 147–135 double overtime win against the Brooklyn Nets.


title: Collin Sexton

text: On November 7, 2021, Sexton exited a road game against the New York Knicks with a knee injury, which was later revealed to be a torn left meniscus. There was no timetable set for his return. On November 20, it was revealed that he had season-ending surgery.


title: Collin Sexton

text: On September 3, 2022, Sexton was signed-and-traded, alongside Lauri Markkanen, Ochai Agbaji, three future first-round picks, and two future pick swaps, to the Utah Jazz in exchange for Donovan Mitchell. As part of the deal, Sexton agreed to a four-year, $72 million contract with the Jazz. Sexton made his debut for the Jazz on October 19, recording 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 assists while coming off the bench in a 123–102 win against the Denver Nuggets.


title: Collin Sexton

text: Sexton won a gold medal with the 2016 USA Men’s U17 World Championship Team, at the 2016 FIBA Under-17 World Championship in Zaragoza, Spain. He was named the MVP of the tournament.


title: Collin Sexton

text: Sexton was born in Marietta, Georgia, and grew up in Mableton, Georgia with his mother and father, Gia and Darnell Sexton, and his brother, Jordan Sexton.


title: IMG (company)

text: IMG, originally known as the International Management Group, is a global sports, events and talent management company headquartered in New York City. It has been owned by Endeavor since 2013. Trans World International (TWI) is an event and production company of IMG.


title: IMG (company)

text: IMG was founded in 1960 in Cleveland, Ohio by Mark McCormack, an American lawyer who spotted the potential for athletes to make large incomes from endorsement in the television age; he signed professional golfers Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus as his first clients who collectively are known as The Big Three. McCormack died in 2003. In 2004 Forstmann Little, led by Theodore J. Forstmann, acquired the company; Forstmann served as chairman and CEO until his death in late 2011.


title: IMG (company)

text: On June 1, 2006, IMG Media acquired Tiger Aspect Productions, the producer of the British television series "Mr. Bean" and the company, along with Darlow Smithson Productions (also acquired in 2006) later sold to Endemol in November 2009.


title: IMG (company)

text: In 2006, IMG Media acquired nunet AG, a provider of mobile TV services to mobile network operators around the world. Clients of nunet's mobile TV CMS currently include: Vodafone, Proximus, Vodacom, Mobilkom A1. Content distributed currently includes MTV, Fashion TV, Eurosport, and Discovery Networks.


title: IMG (company)

text: In November 2007, IMG acquired Kentucky-based Host Communications, which had multiple business units with services ranging from sports marketing and broadcasting to the management of associations and non-profit organizations. The sports-related businesses were combined with the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) to form IMG College, while the association management division was renamed IMG Associations.


title: IMG (company)

text: IMG was originally headquartered in downtown Cleveland in a complex built in 1965 diagonally across the street from Erieview Tower. When the IMG Center was built, it originally housed the Cuyahoga Saving Bank, which was acquired by Charter One Bank in 1998. In 1997, IMG renovated the Cuyahoga Savings Bank Building and renamed it IMG Center. At street level they have a projection screen showing their businesses, events and clients, with images ranging from Formula One racing to professional golfers. Following the acquisition of IMG by Forstmann Little, the headquarters remained in Cleveland, Ohio, for several years until officially relocating to its new parent company's existing offices in New York, in 2010, though the IMG Center is still located on East Ninth Street in Cleveland.


title: IMG (company)

text: On October 15, 2010, IMG acquired ISP, the multimedia rights holder for more than 50 universities based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. As a result of the acquisition, IMG College retained ISP's former headquarters in Winston-Salem.


title: IMG (company)

text: On December 18, 2013, IMG was acquired by William Morris Endeavor and Silver Lake Partners in a $2.2 billion deal. WME’s Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell serve as co-CEOs with IMG and its more than 3,000 employees worldwide continuing as an independent entity.


title: IMG (company)

text: IMG distributes over 45,000 hours of content—originating from more than 200 clients and events—to major global broadcasters annually, across all forms of media including TV, audio, fixed media, inflight and closed circuit, broadband and mobile. The company’s multimedia product offering includes production of all Channel 4 Racing broadcasts, the inCycle and Golfing World shows, while IMG also produces and distributes Sport 24, the first ever live global premium 24-hour sports channel for the airline and cruise industries, and Edge Sport HD, the 24-hour premium action sports channel. It maintains the world’s largest sports archive with more than 250,000 hours of footage and operates joint ventures with the UEFA Champions League and the Super Cup (clubs) and the Euros (national teams) (UEFA), Premier League (Premier League Productions), European Tour (European Tour Productions), Globo TV Sports (Brazilian League Productions), Associated Press (SNTV) and Asian Tour (Asian Tour Media).


title: IMG (company)

text: IMG Academy is a private educational institution located in Bradenton, Florida, and specializing in sports training. The boarding school offers an Academy program for Pre-K/elementary, middle & high school, and postgraduates, as well as a year-round camp program. The 500-acre campus also serves as the training and competition venue for amateur and professional teams, the host site for a variety of events, and a hub for sports performance research and innovation. Sport programs include: baseball; golf; soccer; tennis; basketball; football; lacrosse; and track & field and cross-country.


title: IMG (company)

text: IMG Models, a division of IMG Worldwide, is an international model management firm. IMG models has offices in New York City, Los Angeles, London, Milan, Paris, and Sydney. Representing female talent since its inception, as of September 21, 2012, IMG has re-launched its men's division after its dismantling in 2007.


title: IMG (company)

text: Consulting works with many corporations on marketing and sponsorship programs, and IMG's stadium and arena group works with leagues and franchises throughout the world. In Brazil, it operated heavily in the recent years along with local affiliate IMM (former IMX), serving clients involved with the FIFA 2014 World Cup and the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics.


title: IMG (company)

text: Speakers book talent for Fortune 500 companies, associations, healthcare organizations, lecture series and colleges and universities throughout the world.


title: IMG (company)

text: IMG operates joint ventures with four major partners in four key emerging markets—Brazil, China, India, and Turkey. IMM (Brazil, former IMX), CC-TV IMG (China), IMG Reliance (India) later Reliance buyout all stake and made it RISE Worldwide and IMG Dogus (Turkey) all work to develop sports, fashion and entertainment properties in their respective territories.


title: IMG (company)

text: IMG has also partnered with John and Chris Evert to found the Evert Tennis Academy located in Boca Raton, Florida.


title: IMG (company)

text: In 2015, IMG and Euroleague Basketball agreed on a 10-year joint venture. Together they will manage the commercial operation, and management of all global rights covering both media and marketing of the EuroLeague (the premier competition for European professional men's basketball clubs) and its 2nd-tier competition, the EuroCup.


title: IMG (company)

text: In May 2017 it was announced that Etihad Airways would collaborate with IMG Models, on a show called "Model Diaries", showcasing models in high fashion as they travel to fashion shows around the world.


title: IMG (company)

text: In July 2017 IMG lost the R&A contract to run the Open Golf Merchandising Shop, as R&A opted to take the operation in house.


title: IMG (company)

text: In late 2007, IMG acquired Host Communications and the Collegiate Licensing Company to form IMG College. In 2010 IMG acquired ISP Sports, which was based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Today, IMG represents the multimedia rights for more than 90 universities, conferences, collegiate associations and venues along with the licensing rights to more than 150 colleges and universities as well as the College Football Playoff. Additionally, IMG Seating serves more than 100 universities, and IMG Learfield Ticket Solutions provides outsourced ticketing services to 30 universities nationwide.


title: IMG (company)

text: Licensing Division works in trademark licensing and currently provides its services to more than 100 Licensors of intellectual property (corporate trademarks, Institutions and non-profits, Automotive companies, Fashion, Lifestyle, Entertainment and Events, Athletes, Legends and personalities).


title: IMG (company)

text: In April 2022, the Global Esports Federation (GEF) announced IMG as their strategic partners and as a result the Commonwealth Esports Championship was formed.


title: IMG (company)

text: Sport 24 is a 24/7 live sports television channel owned by IMG Media, which is available on international airlines such as Lufthansa, Alitalia, Hong Kong Airlines, Garuda Indonesia, All Nippon Airways, Emirates, Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways, Turkish Airlines, American Airlines, WestJet, and AeroMéxico, as well in international waters on cruise lines including Carnival.


title: IMG (company)

text: Among the leagues, tours, and events that have been covered by the service are Premier League, National Football League, National Basketball Association, UEFA Champions League, ATP World Tour, PGA Tour, European Tour, Euroleague and European Rugby Champions Cup, UEFA Euro 2020, 2020 Summer Olympics and Ryder Cup. As there is limited competition for these rights in international airspace and international waters, IMG has been able to consolidate these rights onto a single service.


title: IMG (company)

text: Sport 24 launched in February 2012. A secondary part-time channel, Sport 24 Extra, launched in 2016, offering additional live event coverage in the event of conflicts. Both channels originate from IMG’s production headquarters at Stockley Park, near London’s Heathrow Airport. Sport 24 is available on Panasonic’s live television service, which is broadcast via satellite to airlines.


title: IMG (company)

text: EDGEsport is an international sports and lifestyle television channel owned by IMG Media, broadcasting a variety of action and extreme combat sports, and adventure sports programming. It is available in over 20 countries across the Europe, Middle East, the United States (via Xumo) and Asia Pacific.


title: IMG (company)

text: On February 1, 2018, the Philippine version of the channel (later renamed as TAP Edge in February 2020) was launched via Sky Cable, and it was the first channel owned by TAP Digital Media Ventures Corporation (TAP DMV), EDGEsport programming was ended on TAP Edge in December 2020, as the channel transition its format to action/drama-oriented general entertainment channel.


title: Robotic process automation

text: Robotic process automation (RPA) is a form of business process automation technology based on metaphorical software robots (bots) or on artificial intelligence (AI)/digital workers. It is sometimes referred to as "software robotics" (not to be confused with robot software).


title: Robotic process automation

text: In traditional workflow automation tools, a software developer produces a list of actions to automate a task and interface to the back end system using internal application programming interfaces (APIs) or dedicated scripting language. In contrast, RPA systems develop the action list by watching the user perform that task in the application's graphical user interface (GUI), and then perform the automation by repeating those tasks directly in the GUI. This can lower the barrier to the use of automation in products that might not otherwise feature APIs for this purpose.


title: Robotic process automation

text: RPA tools have strong technical similarities to graphical user interface testing tools. These tools also automate interactions with the GUI, and often do so by repeating a set of demonstration actions performed by a user. RPA tools differ from such systems in that they allow data to be handled in and between multiple applications, for instance, receiving email containing an invoice, extracting the data, and then typing that into a bookkeeping system.


title: Robotic process automation

text: The typical benefits of robotic automation include reduced cost; increased speed, accuracy, and consistency; improved quality and scalability of production. Automation can also provide extra security, especially for sensitive data and financial services.


title: Robotic process automation

text: As a form of automation, the concept has been around for a long time in the form of screen scraping, which can be traced back to early forms of malware. However, RPA is much more extensible, consisting of API integration into other enterprise applications, connectors into ITSM systems, terminal services and even some types of AI (e.g. Machine Learning) services such as image recognition. It is considered to be a significant technological evolution in the sense that new software platforms are emerging which are sufficiently mature, resilient, scalable and reliable to make this approach viable for use in large enterprises (who would otherwise be reluctant due to perceived risks to quality and reputation).


title: Robotic process automation

text: A principal barrier to the adoption of self-service is often technological: it may not always be feasible or economically viable to retrofit new interfaces onto existing systems. Moreover, organisations may wish to layer a variable and configurable set of process rules on top of the system interfaces which may vary according to market offerings and the type of customer. This only adds to the cost and complexity of the technological implementation. Robotic automation software provides a pragmatic means of deploying new services in this situation, where the robots simply mimic the behaviour of humans to perform the back-end transcription or processing. The relative affordability of this approach arises from the fact that no new IT transformation or investment is required; instead the software robots simply leverage greater use out of existing IT assets.


title: Robotic process automation

text: The hosting of RPA services also aligns with the metaphor of a software robot, with each robotic instance having its own virtual workstation, much like a human worker. The robot uses keyboard and mouse controls to take actions and execute automations. Normally all of these actions take place in a virtual environment and not on screen; the robot does not need a physical screen to operate, rather it interprets the screen display electronically. The scalability of modern solutions based on architectures such as these owes much to the advent of virtualization technology, without which the scalability of large deployments would be limited by the available capacity to manage physical hardware and by the associated costs. The implementation of RPA in business enterprises has shown dramatic cost savings when compared to traditional non-RPA solutions.


title: Robotic process automation

text: There are however several risks with RPA. Criticism includes risks of stifling innovation and creating a more complex maintenance environment of existing software that now needs to consider the use of graphical user interfaces in a way they weren't intended to be used.


title: Robotic process automation

text: According to "Harvard Business Review", most operations groups adopting RPA have promised their employees that automation would not result in layoffs. Instead, workers have been redeployed to do more interesting work. One academic study highlighted that knowledge workers did not feel threatened by automation: they embraced it and viewed the robots as team-mates. The same study highlighted that, rather than resulting in a lower "headcount", the technology was deployed in such a way as to achieve more work and greater productivity with the same number of people.


title: Robotic process automation

text: Conversely, however, some analysts proffer that RPA represents a threat to the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry. The thesis behind this notion is that RPA will enable enterprises to "repatriate" processes from offshore locations into local data centers, with the benefit of this new technology. The effect, if true, will be to create high-value jobs for skilled process designers in onshore locations (and within the associated supply chain of IT hardware, data center management, etc.) but to decrease the available opportunity to low-skilled workers offshore. On the other hand, this discussion appears to be healthy ground for debate as another academic study was at pains to counter the so-called "myth" that RPA will bring back many jobs from offshore.