The most ambitious 'Empecinado'

Coast intervention of some of the elements (Photo:MOE)

Night transport by helicopter (Photo:MOE)

FAMET airplanes (Photo:MOE)

The last edition of the exercise "Empecinado" of the Special Operations Command, developed from the 13th to the 23rd of November, has been the most ambitious until this date because of the great amount of combat aids, supports for combat and logistic support involved, and because of the complexity of the planned missions to the participants.

Apart from the Tactic Groups of Special Operations -one leaded by the 2nd Group of Special Operations (GOE in Spanish) and another one by the 4th GOE, reinforced by personnel belonging to the other Groups of Special Operations-, there was another group of air operations equiped with Cougar, Tigre and Chinook helicopters.

As Supporting Force to the Special Operations there was a representation of the 10th Bandera of the Legion, the 31st Regiment of Electronic War, the NBC Regiment, the 12th Bridge Engineer Regiment, the Company of Advanced Reconaissance of the 6th Brigade and of the Military Police Battalion. Furthermore, there was also participation of the Unit of Enemy from the Training Centre "San Gregorio". On the part of the Spanish Air Force, there was the Parachute Engineer Squadron, that played a rescue mission of a pilot that had been isolated after a fail in his plane's motor and that afterwards fell in hostile territory. Altogether, almost 700 soldiers were involved in the exercise.

The aims of the different operations were distributed to the provinces of Alicante, Almería, Granada, Murcia and Valencia. The main missions consisted on catching two terrorist leaders in an aerodrome, so the insertion was performed through a parachunting launch; and another two in places closer to the coast, which required the intervention of the water specialists.

The logistic and supporting aspect has a special relevance so the capacities of the MOE were reinforced by supports of aids and personnel in the 3rd-61 Logistic Group, the 41st Group of Logistic Support and the High Readiness Staff of Bétera.