The Chiefs of Staff of the Spanish and Italian Armies visit the ‘Toro 19’ exercise.

The two chiefs of staff watching the exercise

Shots from the ‘Leopard’ during the exercise

A two-man observer and shooter team in ‘Toro 19’

On the 18th of November, the Chief of Staff of the Army (JEME, to use the Spanish acronym), General Francisco J. Varela Salas, and his Italian counterpart, Lieutenant General Salvatore Farina, travelled to the ‘San Gregorio’ Training Centre in Zaragoza to see the ‘Toro 19’ exercise up close. It is the most important exercise of the year for the Army and will be carried out from the 8th to the 24th of November. The majority of the manoeuvres will take place in Zaragoza, where around 3,000 soldiers are stationed.

The chief of the ‘Castillejos’ division, General Fernando García González-Valerio, welcomed the chiefs of the armies upon their arrival at the command post, where they greeted the rest of the important military figures. In those facilities, they explained how the manoeuvres were to be carried out, before heading off to the to the area where they conducted a demonstration of the exercise. Different vehicles and helicopters which had been deployed participated in said exercise, and later, the generals visited the Division’s advanced tactical command post. To be precise, the objective of ‘Toro 19’ is to train the participating units (in exercises at Division, Brigade and Tactical Group level) so that they can orientate themselves to the offensive actions that are carried out in high intensity conflicts.

To conclude the visit, the generals were able to observe the logistical capacities in the Logistical Support and Integration Centre, where they carried out a display of recovering a vehicle and the extraction of a motor from a ‘Leopard’ tank, amongst other tasks.

The ‘Toro 19’ exercise brings together a total of 6,000 soldiers, 750 vehicles and 12 helicopters deployed to different places in Spain, with the objective of training and instructing their units, under the command of the ‘Castillejos’ Division. On this occasion, Italy was the country which was invited to participate and provided 400 soldiers, along with 100 vehicles from the ‘Pinerolo’ Mechanised Brigade (based in Bari) and from the 82nd ‘Torino’ Infantry Regiment (based in Barletta). Some of the other settings where these manoeuvres were carried out simultaneously include Chinchilla (in Albacete), Bótoa (in Badajoz) and Pontevedra.