Italian Special Forces

[simo]

Hello, as a new member, I’ll post something about my country (Italy)
We have various Tier 1 units and I’ll list them here with some pictures in the next days

Let’s start with Italian Army:

• 9th Paratroopers Assault Regiment “Col Moschin”, is a SAS-like force trained for special operations in various environments. They carry the legacy of the Arditi units of the Italian Army, which operated on the Italian-Austrian Front during World War I.

• 4th Alpini Paratroopers Regiment, is a Ranger type infantry alpini regiment, specializing in mountain combat, and a special force trained for special operations in all kinds of environments, with special skills in skiing and climbing and resistance to cold, stress and fatigue. The 4th is best suited for high-altitude operations. It’s operational battalion carries the legacy of the Alpine Skiers Battalion “Monte Cervino”, an elite battalion of the Alpini Corps, that distinguished itself during World War I and World War II.

• 185th RRAO is a long range reconnaissance paratroopers regiment.
  The 185th Regiment has, by its very nature, a vocation markedly directed towards Intelligence tasks and is specialized in Direct Actions that involve the engagement of remote objectives. The Regiment is particularly specialized in conducting special reconnaissance and terminal guidance operations (TGO), Joint Terminal Attack Controller operations and the terminal control of each source of fire against high-value targets.

Italian Navy:

• GOI (Gruppo Operativo Incursori) - is the branch with raiders; they are trained for naval/land operation are also trained for special operations in all kinds of environments like British SBS, forward air controller, counter terrorism …(but are also used on the mountains of Afghanistan in operation ISAF), are also equipped with special weapons over/under water vehicles for silent insertions.

• GOS (Gruppo Operativo Subacquei) - is the diver’s branch for rescue tasks and damage inspection / repair of vessels and/or submarines. They’re even specialized as underwater E.O.D.

Italian Air Force:

• 17º Stormo Incursori the raiders corp of Italian Air Force. Its primary missions: raids on aeronautical compounds, forward air control, combat controlling, and combat search and rescue.

Carabinieri special forces:

The Carabinieri is a corp of Gendarmerie with both (civil and military) law-and-order police duties, military police, and military peacekeeping and war-fighting capabilities.

• The Carabinieri has its own special forces in the form of the Gruppo di Intervento Speciale or the Special Intervention Group. The GIS features some one hundred or so troops specially trained in counter-terrorism operations with a special emphasis on marksmanship

(Texts from Wikipedia)

[chpo]

Unfortunately, only one Italian figure ever done!

Reload Action Italian Special Force Col Moschin

[00] [01] [02] [03] [04] [05] [06] [07] [08] [09] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19]

[simo]

Herat, 2011

31 hostages rescued in Herat.
It is the early hours of the morning of November 3, 2011, in Afghanistan, when a fierce commando composed of 7 resolute Taliban guerrillas, armed with AK 47s and grenade launchers, raids the headquarters of Esko International, a logistics company serving NATO, in a compound located just 300 meters from Herat airport.
The action, for the chosen place and for how the Taliban intend to develop it, immediately denotes a decidedly demonstrative connotation: 2 of the “insurgents” wear explosive belts and the suicidal intention of the 7 terrorists is to kill foreign civilians, after having taken hostage just a stone’s throw from the Camp Arena ISAF command centers.
Among the dozens of hostages, there are also some Italians.
Security measures throughout the area are immediately activated and the Esko International compound is promptly belted by 2 Quick Reaction Force platoons.
It has just passed 10.00 and the dramatic situation seems to be in a stalemate, but the 7 Taliban ignore that Task Group Bravo, of Task Force 45, has already obtained the green light to intervene.
The sharpshooters take careful positions, armed with their own Sako sniper rifles and the powerful .50-caliber Barrett.
Two mixed operational detachments of Navy Raiders of the GOI and Carabinieri of the GIS - just under 20 operators in total - supported by two A 129 Mangusta assault helicopters and with the aid of 2 helicopters equipped for special operations of 3. REOS, carry out a truly textbook “direct action”, attacking the barracks of the compound through multiple access routes, from the ground and from the sky, simultaneously violating doors, windows and roof.
The outcome of the assault is to make even the “cousins” of the British SAS, who operate under the same joint command, but deployed with Task Force 42, open their mouths: all the terrorists are eliminated, but above all all the 31 freed hostages and incredibly unharmed!
During the raid, M.llo Lorenzo M. of the Special Intervention Group - portrayed in the center in the photo - will be injured, not seriously, in the legs by the splinters propagated by the explosion of the mined bodice of a Taliban.
For this exemplary hostage release action, various decorations have been conferred on the operators involved; To conclude, it is very simple to imagine what impact, such exploits of value and so much and such professionalism, may have had to increase, if ever there was a need, the esteem and admiration that the international community of “Special Operations” nurtures towards our Special Forces.

Task Force 45 (TF-45) was an inter-force military unit of Italian Special Forces, operating, at least from June 2006 to 2016 in Afghanistan, as part of Operation “Sarissa” of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

The Defense Staff coordinated its operations through the COFS. The task force was confidential, and the components were not counted in the total Italian contingent of the 3,880 soldiers (as of June 26, 2011) deployed in Afghanistan, which is why the number of TF-45 personnel is still unknown ( about 200 are estimated, but the figure is uncertain).

[simo]

Raiders of the 9° Col Moschin (Army)

[simo]

Raiders of GOI (Navy)

[simo]

and it doesn’t looks very recent… I think it’s the early 2000, before 2005

[simo]

9° Col Moschin
(Col Moschin Is Army Tier 1)

9 Reggimento incursori Col Moschin 2020

[simo]

GOI
(GOI is Navy Tier 1)
K9 unit is from San Marco (similar to Marines)
EOD from GOS (GOI and GOS are part of Comsubin, Comando Subacqueo Incursori)

[davinator65]

Yeah, I have that one. Not very special, but I like it. The only Italian figure done just like Christoph said.

[MadQuack]

Cool pic, those short carbines certainly look great! HK416C?!

[simo]

Operators from the “IX° Col Moschin” Paratroopers Assault Regiment; Italian Army Tier 1 SF before an HAHO launch.

[simo]

Old School!
COMSUBIN (Naval Special forces) in the '60 and '70

[simo]

And GIS

[Murakami]

Thank you for the excellent coverage of Italian special operations units, Simo!
I bought the Col Moschin uniform loose, as the rest of the kit was pretty early stuff. ReloadAction did a fine job on the uniform. and it is a quite unique patttern. Sadly, RA faded away, when they appeared to be on the cusp of producing more needed stuff, like Norwegian camo uniforms - maybe even a figure. They’d already done an excellent French arid uniform, too.

I like the early COMSUBIN operator in camo, soft body armor and Converse (?) high tops.
I think the Beretta M12 have been done in resin. A fairly inexpensive line - Special Forces Army Man - includes a one piece version of the Walther MPL , which the Italian LF-57 looks nearly identical.

[simo]

Afghanistan, 2009
Ambush to a Folgore convoy
Folgore is a Parachupers Brigate of Italian Army

2009 Scontro a fuoco militari Folgore in Afghanistan

[simo]

185^ Reggimento Paracadutisti Ricognizione RRAO in Jordan

[simo]

Italian Navy’s GOI raiders emerging from the Type 212A class SSK

[simo]

Operational detachment of the 9th Rgt.“Col Moschin” (Army SF-Tier1) operating in Khowst province in Afghanistan, 2004.