Evacuation of civilians in the most important paratrooping exercise of the year

Preparation for one of the jumps

One of the paratrooper jumps

Participants in the "Listed Paratrooper"

The mission of evacuating national staff from a country in crisis by means of an airborne operation was the alleged case in which the most important exercise of the year for the 6th Airborne Brigade 'Almogávares', 'Listed Paratrooper', was based. It started on 19th November and finished today.

In order to perfom the evacuation, six paratrooper launchings were necessary, made from T-21 and T-10 planes of the Spanish Air Force. Boarding took place at the Villanubla and 'San Isidro' barracks airports, both in Valladolid. The Advanced Operations base was also located at the Villanubla air base, from which the operations were planned and prepared.

The first ones to intervene were the members from the Advanced Reconnaissance Company. After performing reconnaissance of the area and neutralising hostile elements, it was the turn of the Assault Echelon of the Tactical Paratrooper Group—led by th 1st Paratrooper Infantry Flag 'Roger de Flor'. The aim was to take the two simulated international airports—located in Ayllón (Segovia) and Tembleque (Toledo)—from which the evacuation of the civilians would be performed. Once controlled, the coordination centres for the evacuation were organised, with the support of the Civil-military cooperation groups, and with the participation of the Reinforcements Echelon, they proceeded with the boarding of the national staff.

As well as the Brigade personnel, the activities were joined by two groups from the 31st Electronic Warfare Regiment. The international presence materialised in the participation of four French and two Argentinian paratroopers, who acted integrated into the Tactical Group.

'Listed Paratrooper' is the most important exercise of the year for the 6th Airborne Brigade 'Almogávares', in which the preparation of their Paratrooper Tactical Group is trained and assessed internally.