Objective achieved by the military forces that, in the two weeks just passed, have trained jointly in the province of Udine.
The joint and multinational exercise "European Wind 2016", which tomorrow will see the last formal act - the flag lowering ceremony - certified the achievement of the full operational capacity of the battle group European on DECI basis (Defense Cooperation Initiative), a military rapid intervention force at the disposal of the European Union to be used in any theaters of international crisis as early as next January.
The Chief of Defense Staff, General Claudio Graziano, present today at the "Rivoli Bianchi" shooting range in Venzone to attend the Live Fire Exercise together with the four chiefs of staff of the Defense of the Nations exercised together with Italy - Austria, Croatia, Slovenia and Hungary - and al chairman of the military committee of the European Union, General Mikhail Kostarakos, underlined "today we have Italian, Slovenian, Austrian, Croatian and Hungarian soldiers from countries that adhere to this initiative and are sending a message of unity and capacity to conduct, under a multinational, European or NATO flag, any operations in areas of crisis".
"We face a period of important challenges and new tasks and I believe that this type of European battlegroup, based on Deci, reaffirms our desire to build even more solid capacities to tighten relations in the southern Adriatic area of Europe and make it an example to follow”, Concluded the Chief of the Defense Staff.
Lined up on the ground 1500 soldiers and a hundred tactical vehicles - between busways Centaur, VBM Arrow, VTLM Lynx and BV in addition to Hungarian RABAs, Humvee Croats and Valuk Slovenians - numerous Italian and Austrian helicopters, "greeted" at the end of the exercise by a passage of the National Acrobatic Patrol.
