The armored force, which is heading to Slovakia in July to take part in a NATO surveillance mission in Eastern Europe, is conducting its first live fire exercise with Leopard 2A6 tanks at the Santa Margarida military field in Constantia this week. .
This is a tank platoon consisting of 27 mechanized brigade soldiers and five Leopard 2A6 armored vehicles, which will form part of a battalion under the command of Spanish soldiers.
Platoon training began in January and since then, alignment and simulation training has been conducted in Spain and with soldiers from the 12th Extremadura Brigade. The first live firing and certification exercises will take place this week.
“We start the shooting with live fire, this is the first moment of training with live fire,” he said CM Capt. Marco Lopez, squadron commander of the Ready Platoon, explains that “the idea is to simulate an offensive combat situation with fire from a tank, stationary and moving.”
Kinetic energy training armor-piercing ammunition is used. In other words, these are darts, each of which weighs 20 kilograms and is thrown at a speed of 1790 meters per second. They have a range of four kilometers and the ability to destroy armored targets.
“The exercise takes place in three moments: remote shooting without a garrison at another combat vehicle, which is fired from outside the armored vehicle (technical shot); the zeroing procedure, in which the sighting device is adjusted to the gun; and section tactical shooting table. to evaluate the garrisons being prepared.” Two tanks are involved, one section at a time.
All moments of the exercise are controlled from the “shelter”, where the advanced shooting instructor (master gunner) is located.
“Through the testing equipment—Video Training Equipment (VTE)—we monitor the entire operation, we can pause the firing if there is any abnormality,” explained CM Assistant Cavalry Sergeant Luis Ramos, adding that “the computer is ready to detect a tank error in regarding this ammunition and correct it.”
VTE also allows the impact of the munition on the target to be checked using a high-speed camera that records the entire flight path.
The next major live-fire exercise will take place in April during the Orion military exercise.
It should be noted that this is the first time that a Portuguese armored force consisting of tanks is part of a NATO mission and deployed on the battlefield. In July, the platoon will depart for Slovakia on a six-month mission.
Author: Isabel Jordan
Source: CM Jornal
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