La Offshore represents the largest annual Defense exercise, planned and conducted by the Navy. It involves all the Navy's excellences: ships, submarines, air assets, landing force, telecommunication networks and cyber defense systems, in a multi-domain and inter-force scenario.
This year's edition paid particular attention to countering CBRN threats – Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear – through a complex training event that developed from the center of the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Tiber, between 8 and 14 April.
The complexity of the operation is demonstrated by the broad participation of institutional and civilian actors. Alongside the assets of the Navy, the Port Authorities, the Italian Army, the Carabinieri, the Italian Red Cross, the Military Corps of the Red Cross, the Volunteer Nurses of the Red Cross, the Civil Protection, the CISOM, the ARES 118 emergency service and the crews of two units of the Italian merchant fleet operated in close synergy. A high-level national device, demonstrating the country's ability to respond coherently to complex scenarios.
The exercise kicks off on April 8, when the ferry Wind rose, sailing from Cagliari to Marina di Carrara, raises an alarm via radio, reporting an attack by terrorists and the presence of injured people on board.
The destroyer Mimbelli, closer to the area, receives the distress call and sends two teams of marine brigade riflemen Saint Mark (the first assault and the second CBRN). The terrorists have already disappeared, but evidence of radioactive material is found on board, also confirmed by the symptoms shown by some of the wounded.
The support is provided by the Multirole Exploitation and Reconnaissance Team (MERT) of the 7th Regiment Cremona of the Italian Army, embarked on the Mimbelli, which determines the chemical nature of the contamination.
The operation is divided into two main directions: on the one hand, the rescue of the injured, transported to the safe port of Civitavecchia and entrusted to the competent health authorities; on the other, the search and neutralization of those responsible for the theft of contaminated material.
Intelligence activity identifies a suspicious cell in the countryside outside Rome, in the locality of Santa Rosa di Mazzalupo. Again, a team from the Marine Brigade Saint Mark It is used for a targeted action, conducted in coordination with units of the Italian Army.
The operations allowed to precisely identify the type of agent in the possession of the terrorists and to find a map indicating the area planned for the release of the chemical substance: an irrigation system along the banks of the Tiber.
The decisive assault took place in a river environment and at night, along the Tiber, thanks to a "riverine" operation conducted rapidly and effectively by the marine brigade. Saint Mark.
To complete the remediation and evidence acquisition operations, the Navy activates the technical-scientific support of the Carabinieri of radioactive nucleus, environmental protection and energy security.
La Open Sea 2025 confirms once again its centrality as an operational laboratory in which to converge the skills, capabilities and technologies of multiple bodies and institutions, in an inter-force and inter-agency context.
A highly realistic scenario, in which procedures are tested, collaboration is improved and the collective capacity to react to complex emergency events is strengthened, in defense of national security and the community.
