List of units of the Italian Army
This page lists brigades, regiments, battalions, and other formations and units of the Italian Army since World War II grouped by their administrative corps.
Units grouped under their operational headquarters are listed at Structure of the Italian Army.
The Granatieri (Grenadiers) are the oldest speciality of the Italian Army and act as honor guard for the President of Italy.
The 1st Bersaglieri Battalion is named for the founder of the Bersaglieri corps General Alessandro Ferrero La Marmora, while the 11th Battalion, which had received the war flag of the 182nd Regiment "Garibaldi", was named for the island of Caprera where Italy's national hero Giuseppe Garibaldi spent the last years of his life.
Paratroopers regiments carry the name of World War II airborne divisions.
The following lists includes the origin of the name for the oldest regiments in brackets before the date of founding.
In 1975 tank battalions were named for officers, soldiers and partisans, who were posthumously awarded Italy's highest military honor the Gold Medal of Military Valor for heroism during World War II.
Light anti-aircraft artillery groups were activated in 1975 as reserve units with older equipment, but never filled with troops.
They were named for birds of prey and disbanded in the early 1990s: The Engineer Corps was founded on 11 June 1775 as the "Royal Corps of Engineers" ("Corpo Reale degli Ingegneri") of the army of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia.
In May 1940 when Italy entered World War II the branch fielded 18x engineer regiments, which contained a mix of sappers and signalers.
During the war each division received a mixed engineer battalion providing sappers and signalers.
In 1975 the army fielded two miners, one sapper and nine pioneer battalions, and 24x brigade engineer companies.
After the end of the Cold War the army renamed all battalions as regiments, although the composition of the units didn't change.
During World War II the Signal Speciality raised a hundreds of units to join the various divisions of the Regio Esercito.
With the army reform in 1975 the light planes and helicopter units were merged into squadron groups, equally in size to a battalion.
