From 3 to 27 May, in the waters of the Central Mediterranean, the Mare Aperto 2024 exercise will take place, the most important training event of the naval team which, this year, will be even more impressive, as it is twinned with the French exercise Polaris, led by the command French Strike Force.
The Italian-French exercise will see the massive deployment of assets and staff of the two Nations, with the involvement of 9 other allied countries, thus allowing joint training through a multi-domain scenario that will be developed in a vast area that will include Sardinia and Corsica, as well as the waters of the central Mediterranean.
The planning activity of the exercise is proceeding quickly and, just in the last week, it was concluded at the headquarters of the command in chief of the Santa Rosa naval team, the Initial Planning Conference (IPC), which saw the involvement of 80 representatives of the participating countries.
The commander in chief of the naval team, team admiral Aurelio De Carolis, wanted to greet the experts, defining the joint exercise as "a great challenge both in the preparation phase and in its execution".
During the training phases there will also be the activation of the European Maritime Force (EUROMARFOR) and the ITA MINEX, the most important national exercise focused on mine warfare, which will contribute to increasing on the one hand the complexity in the management of the forces in action in Mediterranean and on the other the prestige of the event which will take place next spring. In his speech, Admiral De Carolis wanted to "provoke" the conference participants by paradoxically defining "it is easier to conduct real operations than an exercise, because your task now will be to make this exercise as realistic as possible".
New meetings are planned in the coming months aimed at harmonizing the training scenarios and verifying the exercise areas, in order to have the maximum return in terms of training, interoperability and interchangeability of the assets of the two Navies, in line and adherence to the new directives on cooperation in the defense sector between Italy and France.
