In recent days, the Italian soldiers stationed in Herat carried out a recovery exercise for isolated or troubled personnel - Personnel Recovery (PR), in a daytime environment and in non-permissive conditions. Many assets are involved: the 66th "Trieste" aircraft infantry regiment, rotary wing assets of the task group Fenice based on 27 ° AVES “Mercury” squadron group, areal security elements of the task force Sand of the 7 ° bersaglieri regiment, the Base Operation Center (BOC) of the Italian Air Force for the monitoring and regulation of civil air traffic within Herat Airport and the Joint Operation Center (JOC) of the command, which oversaw the planning and constant monitoring of the exercise.
Il Personnel Recovery is an important operational capacity of the Train Advise Assist Command West (TAAC W), the multinational Italian-led command included in the mission Resolute Support in Afghanistan. Many national military and civil structures operate in the various operating theaters in an increasingly distributed form, and this increases the chances of situations of isolation being created. This necessitates an approach to PR in a multidimensional perspective that allows the recovery and reintegration of isolated personnel with targeted and timely interventions.
The commander of TAAC-W, general Gianpaolo Mirra, recalled that the recovery of isolated personnel, in addition to being a moral duty for all commanders engaged in operations, presents factors that can have a direct impact on the success of the operation itself and on staff morale.
