After the extraordinary performance in the "Swift Response 2015" exercise performed in close collaboration with the American colleagues, now is the time, for the sake of the thunderbolt, to try their hand at the traditional "Mangusta" exercise.
From the 22 October to the 6 next November the paratroop brigade "Folgore" is engaged in this extensive and complex exercise that this year has very little. The event, the largest in opposing parties that normally takes place on national soil, will be attended by more than 900 paratroopers of the Italian Army, belonging to all the paratrooper regiments of the thunderbolt.
Units of the 185 ° RRAO (COMFOSE) regiment will also be involved, as well as 120 paratroopers of the US Army based in Vicenza. The activity, based on the maximum realism and conduct without interruption, will not take place according to a predefined scheme, but will develop according to the decisions made in the field by the unit commanders. In the same it is foreseen the use of numerous set-ups and the carrying out of airborne helicopter with the technique of free fall and with the restraint rope.
The "Mangusta" has always been considered the university of the parachutist, the individual and collective experiment that does not discount and does not allow shortcuts. On the field, the soldier must take responsibility for his actions and the influence they have on his colleagues and on the ongoing operations. It is a test also for the psychological and physical conditions of the participants, professionalism and physical strength are required as well as character and will of steel.
As every year, the exercise will have the task of testing the capabilities of all operational levels of the brigade and deciding on the training trend for the year to come. Directly connected with the very controversial "Trident Juncture", in which a paratrooper regiment is employed, this year the Magusta will also have to do as a test for the development of the new capabilities of the Italian Army, in mode joint. The new goal will be to test the capacity of the thunderbolt to plan and conduct air operations in a context of combined units. Specifically it will be a matter of entering as a single force into a hostile operative theater populated by opposing forces to ensure the deployment of the entry force. Furthermore the ability to operate as will be tested Task Force in a scenario without inputs by sea or by land and with limited logistic support in the initial phase.
The exercise Magusta 2015 it will be an intriguing combination of tradition and innovation, a synergy that has always characterized this particular specialty.
(photo: US Army)
