Yesterday morning, in Peschiera del Garda, on the Mincio river, in the presence of the commander of the Support Terrestrial Operating Forces, general of army corps Giuseppenicola Tota, the final act of the "Argo 2020" exercise took place, which saw the launch of a motorized floating bridge (PGM) of about 120 meters, through the use of modules from self-propelled bridge connected to each other and measuring 10 x 10 meters each.
The exercise, carried out in collaboration with the municipality of Peschiera del Garda, was also attended by the commander of the Engineers, Major General Gianpaolo Mirra, the commander of the Infrastructure Command, Brigadier General Massimo Bendazzoli, the mayor of Peschiera del Garda, lawyer. Maria Orietta Gaiulli and civil and military authorities of the Venetian town.
The logistical support provided by the Motorization, Engineers, Artillery and NBC Materials Park of Peschiera del Garda, dependent on the Logistic Command of the Army, which allowed the preparation of the exercise direction and made available the areas and infrastructures for the deployment, from the first days of September, of about 150 soldiers and more than 100 vehicles of the 2nd engineer bridges regiment of Piacenza .
After a brief presentation by Colonel Salvatore Tambè, commander of the 2nd Ponteeri, during which the features of the exercise were exposed and the methods of dry launching of a PGM module were shown, the activity moved to the water where the creation of an escape route for the population was simulated by crossing the Mincio river on the motorized floating bridge, assuming a possible emergency that made the bridges of the road network unusable.
The activity of assistance to the civilian population in the event of emergencies and natural disasters is part of the institutional tasks assigned to the Italian Army which, through the use of the engineering departments at its disposal, is able to cooperate with other civil operators in the management of emergencies.
The purpose of the exercise was to further increase the specialty training level of Piacenza engineers, in an urban context, in compliance with the limitations imposed by the current healthcare context.
After more than 150 years, the bridges return to the Mincio in a different context from that of 1866 during the III War of Independence, when they threw a pontoon bridge in Goito (MN) about 2 kilometers upstream of the stable bridge to the transit of infantry and artillery.
