The "White Fox 2023" international military exercise will start today, organized to verify the capabilities of the units of the Army's Alpine Troops to operate in the high mountains, in a highly compartmentalized winter environment characterized by extreme weather conditions, similar to those arctic.
The 'White Fox 2023' will test the degree of training of the Alpine units at an individual and collective level and will take place from 6 to 17 March in the mountains of Val Pusteria and Alta Val Badia (Bolzano), Cadore (Belluno), with an appendix in Sardinia.
The exercise, which will be officially inaugurated on Wednesday 8 March in Brunico, will involve more than 1.500 Alpini from the "Julia" and "Taurinense" brigades as well as from the Alpine training center, a company of the battalion Saint Mark of the Navy, military of the 173rd Airborne Brigade US and 27th Mountain Infantry Brigade French, aircraft and units of the Army and Air Force together with the contribution provided by the Red Cross.
The 'White Fox 2023' can be summarized in three keywords: verticality, or the ability to dominate the altitude; arcticity, the ability to operate for a long time in extreme climatic conditions, and internationality, i.e. interoperability with allied and partner armies. It is divided into four distinct exercise events:
• Arctic Endeavour, represents a verification of the ability to plan and conduct operations in areas characterized by harsh climates similar to those of the Arctic. The activity will take place from 6 to 15 March in the Valgrande Padola area (Belluno).
• Winter Resolve, exercise that will take place from 6 to 17 March in Fiammes (Belluno) in Villabassa (Bolzano). It will be an opportunity to verify the training level achieved both in the conduct of movement and combat operations in a winter mountain environment and in the conduct of fire exercises.
Ice Patrol, consists of a continuous patrol exercise that will take place over a period of three days and two nights, from 8 to 10 March in Alta Val Badia, along an itinerary of about 20 kilometers and almost a thousand meters of vertical development aimed at test the technical and tactical capabilities of mountain combat possessed by each team exercised with specific reference to the application of the techniques of Mountain Warfare.
• Ice Challenges it is an individual competition, a biathlon with a military twist, which combines a ski mountaineering competition with a target shooting competition. It will take place on 14 March in the Dobbiaco/San Candido area
The commander of the Army's alpine troops, general of the army corps Ignazio Gamba, highlighted that "in the White Fox exercise, we intend to pursue a specific approach to combat in the mountains and areas characterized by harsh climates, the so-called Mountain Warfare, which aims to know how to make the most of and transform the objective difficulties typical of mountain terrain into one's own advantage and arctic. Approach widely shared today. The Alpine Troops, on the basis of their peculiar, traditional and tested combat skills in the mountains, today constitute a resource in which to invest in order to develop an instrument that is increasingly responsive to the conditions imposed by today's and future geostrategic scenarios.
Numerous side events of the White Fox 2023, concerts are planned by the fanfares of the Alpine brigades Julia e Taurinense in the locations of the exercise, and a suggestive Italian torchlight vigil on skis on the evening of the 14th on the Baranci slope in San Candido, while the closing ceremony will be held on Thursday the 16th in Piazza San Michele, also in San Candido.
