The 2nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Group belonging to the 71st Regiment headed an exercise with Mistral missiles in 'Médano del Loro'

The 2nd Mistral Group from the 71st Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment, with base in Fuencarral (Madrid), has conducted the direction, coordination and performance of the real fire exercise with Mistral missiles, yearly carried out, from the 19th to the 22nd of March, at "Médano del Loro" Maneouvres and Shooting Field's facilities (Huelva).

Among the aims of the exercise, some of them consisted in the instruction of shooters, checking the effectiveness of the shot, as well as evaluating the integration and combat procedures of the shooting posts. Altogether 19 launches of Mistral and Mistral II missiles were performed at night by the personnel coming from all the Spanish Army's Mistral units and from the Marine Corps Brigade. In the performance of the exercise of Command and Control Fire Systems (COAAASM and COAAASL models) with their associated radars have been deployed which, integrated in the Aerial Defense System, reproduced a complete shooting sequence from the location and acquisition of the target, assigning them the launch unit determined to the launch of the missile to the target-flight, showing the high level of instruction and training acquired by each of the teams in the joint manoeuvres and annual simulators.

Furthermore, as happened in previous occasions, shooting air-to-air exercises were performed with the participation of "Tigre" helicopters, coming from the 1st Attack Helicopters Battalion.

As innovation, in this edition the SCR Company attended the exercise, and it ceded a target SCRAB aircraft fitted with a collection of circular leds in its front, which emitted a simulation of the heat source in infrared of the combat aircraft's motors, replacing the traditional use of flares. The prototype was shot down, with the aim of getting useful information for the subsequent analysis and evaluation of the data.

To do so, it was necessary the support of the "El Arenosillo" facilitites belonging to the National Institute of Aerospace Techniques, which colaborated together with the Civil Guard in order to guarantee security during the exercise. It also had the support of the Aerial Targets Unit, dependent of the General Staff of the Anti-Aircraft Command, launching ALBA and SCRAB II targets.