Operazione White Crane is Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

's military

Military of Italy

The Italian armed forces are the military of Italy, they are under the command of the Italian Supreme Council of Defence, presided over by the President of the Italian Republic. The total number of active military personnel is 293,202...

 relief operation for Haiti

Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...

, following the 12 January 2010 earthquake

2010 Haiti earthquake

The 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake, with an epicentre near the town of Léogâne, approximately west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. The earthquake occurred at 16:53 local time on Tuesday, 12 January 2010.By 24 January, at least 52 aftershocks...

.

Force composition

Italy is sending:

• aircraft carrier Cavour
  • Cavour's complement:
    • 6 Navy helicopters
      • 4 SH-3D helicopters
      • 2 EH-101 helicopters
    • two operating theatres
    • 550 ship's crew, medical complement, force protection sailors
  • Shipped on Cavour: (Task Force Genio)
    • 15 Army tracked vehicles
    • 20 Army wheeled vehicles
    • 5 mobile medical vehicles
    • Army personnel
      • 200 alpine troops of the 2° reggimento Genio di Trento2nd engineering regiment of Trento
    • Air Force personnel
    • Carabinieri military police
    • Carabinieri medical unit
    • mobile hospital
    • 200 tonnes of food
• Field hospital
  Field hospital
  A field hospital is a large mobile medical unit that temporarily takes care of casualties on-site before they can be safely transported to more permanent hospital facilities...
  
  
• C-130

Mission timeline

On 14 January 2010, Italy dispatched a C-130 loaded with 20 surgeons, some soldiers, some civil protection officers, and a field hospital. It decided to send a warship.

On 19 January 2010, Cavour set sail for Haiti, leaving La Spezia

La Spezia

La Spezia , at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the Liguria region of northern Italy, is the capital city of the province of La Spezia. Located between Genoa and Pisa on the Ligurian Sea, it is one of the main Italian military and commercial harbours and hosts one of Italy's biggest military...

.

As of 29 January 2010, Cavour had picked up a Brazilian relief force at Fortaleza

Fortaleza

Fortaleza is the state capital of Ceará, located in Northeastern Brazil. With a population close to 2.5 million , Fortaleza is the 5th largest city in Brazil. It has an area of and one of the highest demographic densities in the country...

. The Brazilians added two helicopters, a UH-14 Super Puma and a UH-12 Squirrel (AS350), 11 civilians (6 doctors, 5 nurses), 63 military (25 health professionals).

On 1 February 2010, Cavour arrived at the Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...

 port of Puerto Caucedo, near the capital of Santo Domingo

Santo Domingo

Santo Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, and estimated at 3,294,385 in 2010. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...

. The land element, Task Force Genio, disembarked, and would trek overland to Haiti, due to the damaged docks at Port-au-Prince

Port-au-Prince

Port-au-Prince is the capital and largest city of the Caribbean nation of Haiti. The city's population was 704,776 as of the 2003 census, and was officially estimated to have reached 897,859 in 2009....

. Cavour has RO-RO capability.RO-RO = roll-on, roll-off -- similar to a ferry, where you can drive on and drive off again It would depart for Haiti later.

On 3 February 2010, Cavour had disgorged all the land-mobile land-element. The overland trip to Port-au-Prince from Puerto Caucedo took 24 hours.

On 6 February 2010, Cavour arrived at Port-au-Prince.

As of 7 February 2010, over 25 aid flights using the Italian and Brazilian helicopters over the two days that Cavour had been at Port-au-Prince, had been completed.

Cavour is expected to remain docked at Port-au-Prince through mid-April.

Reactions

Several Italians have criticized the use of Cavour since it costs over 200,000 Euros a day to operate, and shipping by air would have been far faster. Others have said, that it is a drop in the bucket compared to the efforts by the US. Some have pointed out, it is one of the largest efforts out of Europe.