New combat instructors are trained in woods and forest

The 7th "Galicia" Brigade has organised some exercises, at the manoeuvres field of Parga (Lugo), in order to train, in combat capacities and in the forest, the units of the Spanish Army and other foreign units too, from the 9th to the 15th of April.

These days have been useful for the formation of the commands of the units, chief of sections and squads when dealing with combat in wooded areas, Fight in Woods and Forest (FIWAF). The 1st Motorised Infantry "Zamora" Battalion belonging to the 7th "Galicia" Brigade, is the unit of reference, being prepared inside the Land Force for these capacities; it has been the responsible of conducting the development of these days.

The exercise, which was national and international, was attended by personnel belonging to "Galicia" Brigade, "Rey Alfonso" Brigade, 7th "Almogávares" Brigade, the Special Operations Command, 1st "Aragón" Brigade, 10th "Guzmán el Bueno" Brigade, 11th "Extremadura" Brigade and 12th "Guadarrama" Brigade; and as international representation, by units coming from the French and Italian Armies.

The main aims of this exercise were to provide the commands (chiefs of section and squad) with the basic knowledge to plan and perform combat missions in wooded areas and to obtain the capacity for the formation of personnel in their source units. For that reason, they improved their abilities such as the command and control of an unit opering in wooded areas, orientation techniques, basic practices for surviving in wooded areas and preparation and perfomance of ambushes. The participants also improved their abilities of recognizing and marking a route in wooded zones, performing exercises of mobility and against mobily with the support of the engineers. Finally, they carried out stabilization practices and loss aid in combat, exercises with real fire in the forest with guns, rifles and machine guns, during the day but also at night, and they improved their capacities when using night-vision elements and infrared camera.