The “NASR 2025” exercise, conducted by the Italian Army together with the Qatar Emiri Land Forces (QELF), as part of the bilateral cooperation agreements between the two countries, concluded at the Al Qalayil range in Qatar.
The NASR, organized by the Army General Staff, was conducted by the “Aosta” Mechanized Brigade with over 500 soldiers from all over Italy, with the aim of verifying the operational readiness and training level achieved by the departments in the planning and conduct of tactical activities, in a non-permissive environment such as the desert. Furthermore, during the entire period of stay in Qatar, an intense field testing activity was conducted by the Army Evaluation and Innovation Command (COMVIE) of a series of technologies currently considered to be of great interest for increasing the operational capabilities of the Armed Forces and strictly connected to the implementation of the “Tactical Bubble”.
The training activity, thanks to which interoperability with the QELFs was increased, culminated with a multi-weapon Tactical Group exercise in a warfighting context led by the 6th Bersaglieri Regiment, with the use of the new Blindo Centauro 2 platforms of a Cavalry squadron of the “Lancieri di “Aosta” (6th) regiment, with the fire support of the 8th “Pasubio” and 52nd “Torino”, of the engineers of the 4th sappers and 6th pioneers regiments, of the target acquirers of the 185th Parachute Reconnaissance and Objective Acquisition Regiment (RRAO) and of the remotely piloted aircraft (APR) of the 3rd Targeting Support Regiment “Bondone”. During the tactical actions, the new “Vulcano” artillery ammunition was also validated with self-propelled guns. PZH 2000, under the supervision of the Land Armaments Directorate.
With the activity conducted in Qatar it was also possible to evaluate the capacitive and technological aspects of the Armed Forces, thanks to the presence of COMVIE personnel who coordinated the structures of the Artillery Command, the Army Special Forces Command, the 9th “Rombo” Cybernetic Security Regiment and the “Julia” Brigade, allowing the effectiveness of the C-UAS (Counter-Unmanned Aircraft System), Cross Domain, Sensor to Shooter systems and their integration to be tested with the “Tactical Bubble”, verifying the effectiveness of the rapid exchange of information and the integration of Command and Control (C2) systems of different types (Imperio, C2DNEVO, Argo, SIF and JDIFSS), with the help of the specialists of the 232nd Transmissions Regiment and, finally, to evaluate and validate the improvements to some equipment recommended following the “Tactical Bubble” exercise carried out in Sardinia last summer.
The final exercise was attended by the Ambassador of Italy to Qatar, HE Paolo Toschi, the Chief of Staff of the Qatar Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Jassim Bin Mohammed Al Mannai, the Chief of Staff of the Qatar Army, Major General Jassim Bin Ali Al Attiyah and the Commander of the Army Evaluation and Innovation Command, Army Corps General Francesco Olla. The Aosta brigade concluded the bilateral exercise. The entire activity was led by the Aosta brigade.