The chief of staff of the Army, general of the army corps Salvatore Farina, yesterday morning visited the "Pinerolo" brigade currently deployed in the Torre Veneri polygon (Lecce) and engaged in the conduct of the Operational Integration Session (SIO) 2020 as part of the Experimentation Campaign of the "Forza NEC" project (Network Enabled Capability).
The event was also attended by the president of the IV defense commission of the chamber of deputies, Hon. Gianluca Rizzo, and the honorable members Davide Galantino, Roberto Ferrari, Giovanni Russo and Giovanni Luca Aresta.
The “Forza NEC” project, joint Defense-Industry, aims to reduce the communication and information acquisition times in military operations by means of new information technologies.
General Farina, accompanied by the commander of the Southern Operational Forces, general of the army corps Rosario Castellano, after having received a situation point on the Integration session underway by the commander of the "Pinerolo" brigade, Brigadier General Giovanni Gagliano, visited the command posts digitized, lined up in the polygon.
The purpose of the exercise, carried out in full compliance with the current provisions on combating COVID-19, was to acquire an effective ability to operate in a completely digitalized way, using command and control, tactical means, as well as individual equipment in a context warfighting.
The Chief of Staff of the Army, thanks to the use of communication equipment of the command posts digitized, was able to attend a digitized tactical group level exercise, engaged in an operation to stabilize a crisis area.
In this operational context, in addition to some units of the Navy and the Air Force, the Italian Army has deployed both a brigade mobile command post on the VTMM "Orso" platform, with the possibility of managing the situation of the units on the ground in real time through a flow of digital communications, both the VTLM 2-NEC, a vehicle with greater mobility than the previous version and able to guarantee the connection between the different command levels.
In particular, the command post brigade on tent, the regimental command, the completely digitalized “fly away” communication systems and the Tactical Communication Control Kit (TCCK), which made it possible to successfully operate the first integration with the F35 aircraft of the Italian Air Force and with the components of the Landing Force of the Navy.
The SIO 2020 confirmed the full maturity of the systems subject to validation: brigade command post, Communication Information System (CIS), command post on VTMM Bear, VTLM2-NEC, TCCK, SIACCON and SICCONA.
At the end of the exercise, meeting the military personnel, General Farina thanked the Defense Commission for the attention paid to the Amata Force, congratulated all the participants in the exercise, from commanders to the youngest soldiers, and underlined how " the experimentation must continue also in the future to have advanced systems from a technological, safety and performance point of view ".
