Led by the Colombian Area Force, from 3 to 14 September, the “Angel de los Andes 2018” Exercise was held with the participation of 12 countries: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, United States, France, Panama, Peru, Dominican Republic and Uruguay.
With the motto “United to Save Lives”, the exercise aims to improve the capabilities of emergency management and natural disasters, while being articulated as a perfect platform for the exchange of experiences and generation of knowledge of interoperability between the armed forces of all participating countries. All this with the ultimate goal of saving lives of both military and civilian personnel in any field of operations, following the standards and protocols of NATO.
In this context, during “Angel de los Andes 2018” exercise, scenarios of aerial accidents, earthquakes, large-scale wildfires, attacks on a military convoy, search and recovery of demolished crews in a hostile area and rescue of crews were reproduced. sea, parachute training and the entire inter-agency humanitarian mission, which implies the collaboration of the Armed Forces with the National Unit for the Management of Disaster Risk, Civil Defense and Fire.
In the exercise, more than 400 troops participated, distributed among the camps of Rionegro (Antioquia) and Puerto Salgar (Cundinamarca). All simulated scenarios had as a common denominator the ultimate goal of saving lives of both military and civilian personnel involved or affected by these situations, highlighting for this the training in aeromedical evacuation, natural disaster management, mass transfer of injured and crew rescue.
The exercise was inaugurated by the General Commander of the Colombian Military Forces, General Alberto José Mejía, and closed by the Minister of Defense of Colombia, Mr. Guillermo Botero Nieto and the Commander of the Colombian Air Force, General Carlos Eduardo Bueno Vargas, at the base of the Air Command Number 5 in Rionegro, Antioquia.
The Air Command Number 5 of Rionegro (Antioquia) has a sustainable rapid deployment camp that was partially deployed during this Fiscal Year. This Camp was supplied by the Spanish company Hispano Vema in 2014, and since then, the Camp has become a benchmark in terms of interoperability, rapid deployment and sustainability within the Armed Forces of Colombia, maximizing operational capabilities and reducing the logistics footprint and deployment time.
As a result of the collaboration in terms of Innovation and Development between the Colombian Air Force and Hispano Vema, the Rionegro camp is an example of a sustainable camp that marks the trends of the camps of the future. Integrating all the necessary services from a perspective of sustainability and efficiency: Accommodation, Command Posts, service areas, support equipment, etc.
In this development, Hispano Vema contributed all its international experience in the development of turnkey solutions for both military and civilian Sustainable Camps, of rapid deployment for Missions and Emergency Management. Turnkey solutions that include both the structural elements: tents, service containers (kitchen, ablution, generators, water treatment, etc) or trailers (laundry, generators, kitchen, etc). Like the engineering in the optimization of the deployment processes (to minimize the logistical footprint, to optimize the available resources, to minimize the energy and water consumption, etc). And of course, including technical and training services for both operation and maintenance of the camps.
The Exercise “Angel de los Andes 2018” had a wide coverage in the media of both Colombia and other countries:
http://www.webinfomil.com/2018/09/fuerzas-aereas-del-mundo-se-entrenan-en.html
https://www.canalinstitucional.tv/noticias/fuerza-aerea-angel-andes-2018
