Exercise ARRCADE ENGINEER

AMATRICE, Italy – Staff from NATO’s Allied Rapid Reaction Corps met with Italian military engineers near Amatrice on Thursday as part of a week-long exercise looking at the role of Italian military engineering capability in the context of both national resilience and military operations.

Many of the Italian engineers provided disaster relief last year following the August 2016 earthquake, which measured 6.2 on the Richter scale. More than 5,000 Italian troops deployed to support the immediate relief effort under Operation SABINA. As the Land Component Command for the NATO Response Force 2017, planning and executing such response could be something ARRC are called upon to deliver in the future.

"The visit highlighted use of engineers in providing immediate safety and support to the population,” said Major Imran Ahmed, an infrastructure engineer at ARRC. "Italian Military engineers were the first to respond to the situation and have been critical to the rebuilding effort, delivering houses, bridges and culverts, more rapidly, and at lower cost than civilian industry.”

Exercise ARRCADE ENGINEER 2017 also incorporated visits to NATO Rapid Deployable Corps-Italy, the Italian Engineer Command and other departments to learn from national engineering capabilities in the alliance.

"Looking ahead to Exercise ARRCADE FUSION 17, engineers of the Italian Acqui Division could come under HQ ARRC command, and this experience will prove important in ensuring that we can do our job effectively,” said Ahmed.

Story by Allied Rapid Reaction Corps Public Affairs Office