The multinational exercise COLD BLADE 2016 ended in Finland, in which the Italian Army participated with 4 flight crew members of the 4 Army Regiment "ALTAIR".
The activity, promoted by the European Defense Agency (EDA) and organized by the Finnish Army in the period between the 7 and the 18 March, involved not only the Italian team but also two CH-53 helicopters from Germany and 6 Finnish NH90 helicopters with the main purpose of allowing flight crews and technicians of European military helicopters to share the techniques, tactics and procedures adopted in extreme environmental conditions.
The crews of the Italian Army, along with six members of Finnish crews, have been engaged in survival in the arctic environment that took place further south, near the town of Sodankylä where the brigade is located Jaeger, Lappone center of excellence for fighting in the Arctic environment.
The instructions concerned the modalities of movement on a snowy environment, orientation and navigation on Arctic territory, how to exploit the natural resources of the territory to protect themselves from the very rigid Arctic temperatures, to procure food, to quickly carry out equipment of circumstance and for prepare emergency shelters under snow.
One of the most demanding tests that the crews had to face was to save themselves independently in the event of a fall in the water while crossing a frozen lake. The exercise culminated with the simulation of a night-time emergency landing, following which the participants put in place the necessary techniques for the rapid construction of a shelter under snow, useful to avoid the rigors of extremely cold temperatures, made further insidious by the presence of very wind.
The occasion was propitious to test the materials supplied to the 4 ° "ALTAIR" for survival in the arctic / snowy environment, used in the flight over the Alpine arc, which allowed our soldiers to effectively pass the tests to which have been subjected.
