Personnel of the Spanish and Italian contingents of the BattleGroup, deployed at the Adazi Base, in Latvia, have taken part in the combined exercise “Mediterranean Shooting”.
This exercise is about assaulting a position with mechanised assets from both contingents, namely Pizarro’s and Dardo’s vehicles, in a coordinated and precise manner, enabling the interaction between vehicle crews, mutual understanding and cohesion.
The Infantry Combat Vehicle (VCI in Spanish) ‘Pizarro’, used by the Spanish mechanised units, is a tracked weapon system, with a six hundred horsepower MTU 8V-183 TE22 engine, a 30-milimiter dual feed, gas-operated Mauser MK 30-2 automatic cannon and the capacity to transport 6 soldiers as a ground combat element.
On the other hand, the Italian VCI ‘Dardo’, is slightly lighter and has a 25-milimiter Oerlikon KBA automatic cannon, firing 600 rounds per minute. It can carry Spike two anti-tank guided missiles with a 4-kilometer range and a transport capacity for six combatants.
Both vehicles, of similar characteristics, have attacked a target, advancing and efficiently firing on it, until reaching an adequate distance so that the ground combat element is able to disembark and make an assault to the position until it becomes consolidated.
This type of exercise allows for interoperability and solves out the inherent difficulties of a joint operation, integrating the means/assets and sharing with each other the techniques, tactics and procedures employed by each country.