The Artillery Regiment nº 73 carries out Aspide missile launches

With the aim of checking the efficiency of the Aspide missile, the anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment nº 73, with headquarters in Cartagena (Murcia), carried out shooting exercises in the “Médano del Loro” shooting field in Huelva from 27th February to 3rd March.

In order to carry out the exercises, an Anti-aircraft Defence unit was organised and created by the Sam-Aspide I/73 group, whose weapons systems is made up of low and very low level surface-to-air missiles and twin-cannons 35/90 anti-aircraft guns, that can be fired simultaneously. Different missile and 35/90 firing actions were carried out against radio-controlled air target.

The objectives of the activity included staff instruction, crew training and evaluations, Aspide missile efficiency checks, as well as evaluating integration procedures and combat unit media.

During the exercise, 6 missiles were launched and 480 35/90 shots fired in ten sequences staggered from low to high difficulty, starting with an individual gun and missile shot and ending with a mixed gun/missile shot against a radio-controlled air target with two simultaneous shot phases. The first was carried out by soldiers from the same section and the last by soldiers from different sections.

The exercises had the support of the Air Target Unit, which is part of the Spanish Army Air Defence Command, with it’s headquarters in Madrid.