Bright Armoured for Italy

The equipment that the Spanish Mechanised Battle Group will need to participate in the exercise  “Bright Armoured 17,” which will take place from 19 June to 1 July, has now reached Italy.

A few days ago, on 7 June, in the port of Castellón, 48 vehicles were loaded onto the civilian ship “Caribana Express.” Amongst those were 10 (VCI) “Pizarro” Infantry Combat Vehicles and 11 Armoured Crawler tractors (TOA) M-113, as well as logistics vehicles and various equipment containers. The transfer and loading of the aforementioned vehicles and equipment was carried out by the Deployment Support Unit made up of different units from the Logistics Brigade. The headquarters of the Logistics Operational Force, based in La Coruña, was in charge of coordinating the transport operations and loading, and they will also be responsible for logsitics sustainment of the Spanish unit throughout the exercise.

The National Support Element  was in charge of organising  the unloading of the equipement in the port of Marghera in Italy and transferring them to the military facilities of “La Comina” and the “Cellina Meduna” Maneuvre field in Pordenone.

A total of 170 Spanish troops are participating in this NATO Enhanced Forward Presence exercise, of which 140 belong to 10th Brigade “Guzmán el Bueno” (Córdoba), and the other 30 belong to the AALOG n º 21 (Seville). This Battle Group will operate as a task unit into the Brigade VJTF 18, which will mostly generated by the Italian "Ariete" Brigade.

The goal of the NATO exercise is to improve the coordiantion of the Spanish battle group with the aim of assuring the interoperability and cohesion for the procedures of the VJTF (Very High Readiness Joint Task Force), which should be prepared to be deployed within 24-72 hours, when faced with any crisis or threat.