9th Reggimento d'assalto paracadutisti “Col Moschin”

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Coat of arms of the 9th Paratrooper Regiment

The 9th Parachute Assault Regiment Col Moschin (it. 9º Reggimento d'Assalto Paracadutisti “Col Moschin” ) is a special forces association of the Italian army . The regiment is based in Livorno and is subordinate to the Army Special Forces Command . It is also part of the Special Forces Command ( COFS ) of the Italian General Staff .

assignment

In principle, the regiment is only given orders that are of strategic importance. In the practice of foreign missions, Col Moschin teams are repeatedly assigned to normal associations to provide support in special situations. The most important tasks are:

organization

Regimental emblem

The regiment is currently (as of July 2020) organized as follows:

  • Regimental staff
  • Special Forces Battalion (Battaglione Incursori)
    • 110th company
    • 120th company
    • 130th Company
    • 140th Company
  • Support Battalion (Battaglione supporto operativo)
    • Headquarters and supply company
    • Telecommunications company
  • Training Association (Reparto addestramento incursori)
    • 101. Training company
    • Training ground command ( BAI , San Rossore at the mouth of the Arno )

The emergency teams ( distaccamento operativo ) are directly subordinate to the companies of the special forces battalion . The teams consist of up to twelve (usually eight) soldiers and can be divided into squads . Each team is led by an officer or a higher non-commissioned officer ( Maresciallo ). All other soldiers on the team specialize in certain tasks (snipers, paramedics, explosives experts and others), but must have very good skills in the other areas in addition to their special knowledge. Although all teams should cover the broadest possible range of operations, for mission-specific reasons, specialization in HALO / HAHO parachute jumps, amphibious operations and operations in ice and snow has come about. The regiment is equipped with an almost unmanageable variety of weapons and differs considerably from the equipment of other regiments.

Recruitment and training

Soldiers of the 9th Col Moschin Paratrooper Assault Regiment in a parade on June 2, 2007

The training center of the Army Special Forces Command at Camp Darby near Livorno is responsible for the recruitment and basic training of all Army Special Forces. All ranks up to first lieutenant can apply, provided certain formal requirements are met. If the preselection is passed, a uniform basic training for special forces (Operatore Basico per Operazioni Speciali, OBOS) follows at Camp Darby , including paratrooper training at the airborne school in Pisa . After completing the OBOS basic training, the soldiers are transferred to their respective special units for specialist training and further service. In the 9th Regiment, various specialist and special training courses follow in its training unit, until after a total of around two years the team is taken on. Part of the specialist training can take place abroad or at special forces or schools in other branches of the armed forces or countries. Further training courses can be completed later, including at the German special forces school in Pfullendorf .

The selection process and the OBOS basic training for all soldiers of the Army Special Forces in the training association (RAFOS) of the 9th Regiment took place until 2020. For this reason, in addition to the existing 101st training company, the training association was subordinate to the 102nd training company, from which the training center of the special forces command of the army was created in 2020.

equipment

The armament of the troops deviates from the standard of the Italian army. What the unit needs is also procured.

The troop's standard pistol is the Beretta 92 , but it also features the Colt Python .357 Magnum for maximum man-stopping effect. An automatic weapons that leads 9th Parachute Assault Regiment Col Moschin the H & K MP-5 and the SCP 70/90 5.56 mm in the Air Force version. Some time ago the STEYR AUG was also procured from Austrian production. The regiment's snipers use the H&K G3 / SG1 , the HK MSG90 , the Mauser SP86 , the Accuracy AWP and, for extreme ranges and penetration, the Barrett M82A1 . Shotguns of the type SPAS-15 MIL and Beretta RS202 are available for house-to-house combat . The MG 42/59 machine gun , the heavy MG Browning M2 , the Panzerfaust 3 , the MILAN missile system and the 40 mm Mk 19 machine grenade launcher are also in use. Newer equipment includes the Colt M4 with an attached M203 grenade launcher from American production.

The soldiers of the regiment wore burgundy berets until April 2019 , since then the color has been gray-green.

history

Emblem IX Reparto d'Assalto
Emblem X Rgt. Arditi
Emblem bag "Col Moschin"

The regiment does not actually come from the paratroopers , but from the storm troops ( reparti d'assalto ) set up in 1917 . The assault troops, each consisting of around 600 volunteers, were usually directly subordinate to the army corps and were only used for special tasks. The main task was to break holes and prepare for attacks by the infantry . In mid-1918, two assault divisions were formed from 18 (of a total of 42 at the end of the war) of this type, which fought on the Piave in 1918 . Within the army they soon had a special position under the name Arditi . Their weapon color was black and their emblem was a dagger or a gladius . After the war they played an ominous role in the fascists' seizure of power .

The 9th Paratrooper Assault Regiment Col Moschin comes from the May 1918 for the IX. Corps established IX Reparto d'Assalto . During the Second Battle of the Piave on June 15 and 16, 1918, the storm troops of this association prevented an Austro-Hungarian breakthrough into the lowlands with a series of counter-attacks at the heights of Col Fenilon, Col Fagheron and Col Moschin (pronounced Moskin ) west of Monte Grappa . The lightning-fast, brilliant action on the Col Moschin is considered one of the most outstanding missions of the Italian storm troops in the First World War. The IX Reparto d'Assalto fought again on Monte Grappa at the end of October 1918 and suffered heavy losses.

By December 1919, almost all Arditi associations were dissolved, including the IX.

On July 20, 1942, a new special forces regiment called X Reggimento Arditi was established in Santa Severa near Civitavecchia . It was directly subordinate to the Army General Staff and carried out several missions in Tunisia , Algeria and occupied Sicily until the armistice in September 1943 . On March 20, 1944, the 1st Battalion of the regiment , which had been stationed in Sardinia since January 1943, was turned into an IX Reparto d'Assalto , which took part in the Allied Liberation War against Nazi fascism as part of the Legnano Division . In 1946 the IX Reparto d'Assalto was dissolved again. In 1953 a new special company was founded at the infantry school in Cesano near Rome , which was relocated to the new air landing school in Pisa in 1957 and grew up there until 1961 as a battalion of the Folgore paratrooper brigade . On October 1st, 1975 it was named 9th Parachute Storm Battalion Col Moschin ( 9º Battaglione Paracadutisti d'Assalto “Col Moschin” ) and received that of the X Reggimento Arditi from the Second World War in addition to its own troop flag . On June 24, 1995 it took on its current name and was enlarged to a regiment. In 2013 it was spun off from the Folgore paratrooper brigade and placed under the new Army Special Forces Command in Pisa.

Over the past 30 years, teams from the special association have participated in a number of missions abroad, including 1982–1984 in the international mission in Lebanon , 1991 in Northern Iraq ( Kurdish refugees), 1992–1993 in Somalia , 1994 in Rwanda (NEO), repeatedly in former Yugoslavia , Albania , East Timor , Iraq and Afghanistan .

References

literature

  • Paolo Palumbo: Il Reparto. Passato e presente del 9º Reggimento d'assalto paracadutisti “Col Moschin”. Edizioni “Il Maglio”, Solarussa 2016.
  • Sören Sünkler: Europe's elite and special units . Motorbuch Verlag 2008, ISBN 3-613-02853-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stefano Frezzotti: Intervista al comandante del 9º Reggimento d'assalto paracadutisti “Col Moschin”. In: Airholic. June 25, 2020, accessed July 7, 2020 (Italian).
  2. ↑ Alberto Scarpitta: Il potentiamento delle forze speciali dell'Esercito Italiano. In: Analisi Difesa. August 4, 2013, accessed June 18, 2015 (Italian).
  3. ↑ Alberto Scarpitta: Il potentiamento del Comando Forze Speciali dell'Esercito. In: Analisi Difesa. July 13, 2020, accessed on July 13, 2020 (Italian).
  4. ^ Basco grigio verde per il 9 ° Col Moschin. Da oggi gli incursori indosseranno il basco che appartenne all prime unità speciali. April 19, 2019, accessed June 29, 2019 (Italian).