The complex exercise “LAMPO ’21” took place, the activity of the Defense concluded in Piacenza with the participation of several departments of the Armed Forces whose object was the evacuation of compatriots from a crisis area.

The activity was planned and coordinated by the Italian Joint Force Headquarters (ITA-JFHQ) of the Comando Operativo di Vertice Interforze (COVI) and lasted two weeks, with the first phase dedicated to planning and the second phase in which the executive phase unfolded.
The exercise “Lampo 21”, carried out between Lazio and Emilia Romagna, is a national inter-force event of the Command Post Exercise/Live Exercise (CPX-LIVEX) type, aimed at training commands and forces in the field on a specific type of mission that could be the subject of future national, multinational or coalition operations.

Scopo di quest’esercitazione è stato consolidare ed incrementare la capacità dell’ITA JFHQ, unità di comando interforze proiettabile nell’ambito di operazioni all’estero in risposta alle crisi, secondo quanto previsto dal Capitolo VII della Carta delle Nazioni Unite. Inoltre, l’evento addestrativo ha permesso di verificare la capacità dell’ITA-JFHQ relativamente l’applicazione degli standard per la pianificazione e condotta di un’operazione complessa ed emanazione della connessa documentazione operativa.
Nel novero dei reparti dell’Esercito che hanno partecipato a “Lampo 21”, vi sono stati, una compagnia del Reggimento Lagunari “Serenissima”, unità anfibia dell’Esercito inquadrata nel Comando delle Forze Operative Nord ed un plotone di genieri del 2° Reggimento Pontieri di Piacenza, reparto alle dipendenze del Comando delle Forze Operative di Supporto (FOS).
Inoltre, lo stesso FOS ha fornito il supporto logistico nelle aree addestrative interessate dall’evento, il personale OCT (Observer Coach Training) del Centro di Simulazione e Validazione dell’Esercito nonché assetti TUAV (Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) in forza al 41° Reggimento IMINT “Cordenons” di Sora.

The Italian Air Force provided transport aircrafts of the 46th Air Brigade of Pisa, which took off from Pratica di Mare and Fiumicino International Airport to reach the airports of Ghedi and Montichiari; this activity took place under the coordination of the Joint Movement Coordination Centre of COVI.
The Italian Navy also deployed its own men, while the Carabinieri had elements from the 7th Regiment “Trentino Alto-Adige” stationed in Bolzano.
Significant was the participation in the exercise “Lightning 21” of the medical facilities made available by the Association of Italian Knights Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

The complex activity put in place for the training event included the preparation and deployment in the crisis area of an Operational Liaison and Reconnaissance Team/Forward Command Element (ORLT/FCE); this nucleus represents the first form of contact with the various actors present in the Area of Operations (AoR).
After the successful deployment of the ORLT/FCE, an Evacuation Control Center (CCE) was activated to coordinate the activities of the ground and air assets mobilized for the need, and a Command Post for the command and control of the entire Non Combatant Evacuation Operation (NEO).