Yesterday, in the Parliament hall of the Castle of Udine, the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Multinational Land Force (MLF), founded on 18 April 1998 following the agreement between the government of the Republic of Slovenia, the government of Hungary and the government of the Italian Republic.
The MLF command shared with the civil and military authorities of the Member Countries (Italy, Slovenia and Hungary) and the Observer Countries (Albania, Austria, Croatia and Montenegro) a "journey through the 25 years of activity of the Force" during which it It has been deployed 13 times in the training areas of Italy, Slovenia and Hungary to exercise its units, training well over 20000 soldiers belonging to the three nations over the years. The MLF was employed in 8 out-of-area missions between the Balkans, Lebanon and Afghanistan.
The participants then reached the "Di Prampero" barracks, headquarters of the Alpine Brigade command Julia/MLF, where the dedicated "Multinational Land Force" room was inaugurated where objects and documents that were part of the history of the force are preserved.
The MLF is a multinational force, at brigade level, capable of being employed in the broadest typology of NATO, European Union or United Nations land military operations, either as a sole contingent deployed in the area or as part of a coalition of forces .
Its command is permanently functioning and is composed of Italian, Slovenian and Hungarian personnel responsible for planning, preparing and conducting multinational exercises and operations.
As an observer country, Austria has for more than two years seconded an observer officer to the MLF headquarters where he operates as an integral part of the planning team.
Since 2020, the MLF has established a solid collaboration with the universities of Trieste, Ljubljana and the National University of Public Service of Budapest for the development of exercise scenarios, planning and conduct of exercises, conflict analysis and simulation activities also through the appeal to wargaming. Over the last three years, more than 60 students and researchers from the three universities have participated in the various exercise activities.
The celebration of the 25th anniversary of the establishment of Multinational Land Force, saw the large participation of numerous civil and military authorities, belonging to both member and observer countries, the mayor of the city of Udine Alberto Felice De Toni, the commander of the Alpine Troops, general of the army corps Ignazio Gamba, the academic staff of the Universities of Budapest, Ljubljana, Trieste and Udine.
To all of them, the 46th commander of the Alpine brigade Julia/MLF, Brigadier General Franco Del Favero addressed a welcome message and in thanking for his presence he added that the MLF represents a solid international reality and a model of regional cooperation in the field of defense and security with a very precious wealth of operational experience and relationships among the forces of the constituent countries.
