Poligono sperimentale e di addestramento interforze Salto di Quirra

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Launch of an MGM-52 Lance short-range missile near Capo San Lorenzo

The Poligono sperimentale e di addestramento interforze Salto di Quirra ( PISQ ) ("Testing and training ground for the armed forces Salto di Quirra ") is a restricted military area in the Salto di Quirra landscape on the east coast of Sardinia . It includes a military training area and a rocket launch site . The commandant of the PISQ located in Perdasdefogu .

location

The training area of ​​almost 120 km² is located on the Salto di Quirra plateau between Perdasdefogu in the north, Ballao in the west and Villaputzu in the south ( ⊙ ). State road 125 runs along the coast to the east. In the middle of the practice area is Monte Cardiga and a few other hills.

The approximately 20 km² area of ​​the rocket launch site Capo San Lorenzo ( ⊙ ) is located directly on the sea between Capo San Lorenzo in the south and Capo Bellavista in the north, separated from the training area by the SS 125 . The offshore sea area in the east will be largely closed if necessary.

use

In contrast to a comparable facility near Teulada , the Salto di Quirra training and rocket launch site, which went into operation in 1956, is also used to test military equipment.

The Italian army is testing in Salto di Quirra u. a. complex weapon systems, particularly missiles fired from vehicles, aircraft and ships . Units and associations stationed in northern Italy and armed with various types of rockets came and still come to Salto di Quirra for the annual training shooting ( Annual Service Practice ). The MGM-52 Lance weapon system was used here until 1991, and until 2006 also with anti-aircraft missiles of the Nike Hercules type (until 1966 with the predecessor Nike Ajax on the McGregor range in New Mexico ), with other weapon systems (including Spada , SAMP / T ) it is still being done. The weapons tested here included the Alfa medium-range ballistic missile for the Italian nuclear weapons program and the AS.34 Kormoran anti-ship missile .

Army units also practice with live ammunition at the military training area inland. Airborne associations use it as an air-to-ground firing range . Special units practice amphibious operations in the area of ​​the rocket launch site and then switch to the training area at Perdasdefogu. If necessary, areas in the interior of the country are also temporarily blocked.

At the beginning of the 1980s, the German Bundeswehr also used the area with the anti-aircraft tank “ Gepard ” for exercises with a sharp shot. Even today, the Bundeswehr sporadically uses the space for exercises for missions abroad. In addition, the site and its facilities can also be used by armaments companies and other civilian bodies for research purposes (e.g. launch of Skylark missiles to research the high atmosphere ).

Although there are smaller airfields near Perdasdefogu and north of the restricted area near Tortolì and otherwise the airborne exercises and experiments etc. a. The military airfields in Decimomannu and Pratica di Mare are also to be handled by another airfield to the north-west of Monte Cardiga, where unmanned aerial vehicles in particular will be tested.

Effects

The people around the restricted area have repeatedly protested against military exercises and experiments. A body made up of equal numbers by the Italian army and the regional government of Sardinia has been trying for some time to regulate the use of the military training areas and other military facilities on the island in a way that is acceptable to all concerned.

Among other things, there is said to have been an increase in cancer among military personnel and residents.

Since the beginning of 2011, the public prosecutor's office in Lanusei , the next larger town, has been investigating the operators of the Salto di Quirra shooting range on suspicion of pollution and multiple negligent homicide. It is also being investigated against employees of the auditing firm Société Générale de Surveillance . You are accused of having, against your better judgment, certified the shooting range as being environmentally friendly.

The prosecution suspects that the entire Sperrgebiet and the fields have been around contaminated by the military sites for weapons tests with environmentally harmful and carcinogenic substances, including with uranium munitions from depleted uranium ( depleted uranium ). For example, between 1986 and 2003, MILAN anti-tank guided weapons were fired over 1100 times in the area. They contain the radioactive thorium . In addition, war weapons and old ammunition discarded in the restricted area are said to have been improperly or illegally disposed of or blown up.

After several years of efforts to improve the environmental situation and a more environmentally friendly practice and trial operation, the PISQ received the environmental certification UNI EN ISO 14001: 2004 in January 2016 .

Other restricted military areas in Sardinia

See also

literature

  • Bernard HL Blake (Ed.): Jane's Weapon Systems 1988-1989 , London: Jane's Information Group 1988, p. 191
  • Massimo Carlotto : Deadly Dust , Berlin: Tropen Verlag 2012
  • Michelangelo De Maria, Lucia Orlando: Italy in Space: In Search of a Strategy 1957–1975 , Paris: Beauchesne 2008

Movie

  • Sardinia's Deadly Secret , documentary by Birgit Hermes, ZDF 2012, 29 min.
  • Materia oscura , documentary by Massimo D'Anolfi and Martina Parenti, Italy, 2013, 78 min.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ La Nuova Sardegna, May 10, 2013
  2. ↑ https://www.freitag.de/autoren/der-freitag/sardiniens-waffenparadies
  3. ^ Bundeswehr: Radioactive Panzerknacker . focus.de, April 14, 2001
  4. ^ Sardegna, i segreti della “Sindrome di Quirra” , goleminformazione.it, November 18, 2011
  5. ↑ aeronautica.difesa.it, January 26, 2016

Coordinates: 39 ° 40 ′ 37.1 ″  N , 9 ° 26 ′ 36.3 ″  E