Sassari Mechanized Brigade - History - Recent History

Recent History

The Sassari was recreated in Sardinia on 1 December 1988 as Sassari Motorized Brigade with two light infantry battalions:

• Sassari Command and Signal Battalion, in Sassari
  • Sassari Headquarter Company
  • Sassari Signal Company
• 151st Motorized Infantry Battalion Sette Comuni, in Cagliari
• 152nd Infantry Battalion Sassari, in Sassari

The brigade was under command of the Sardinia Autonomous Military Command/Sardinia Military Region in Cagliari, which had administrative command of all units based in Sardinia and was furthermore tasked with the defense of the island in case of war. Besides the Sassari the following units were based on Sardinia:

• Command Battalion, in Cagliari
• 1st Armored Infantry Regiment, in Teulada (Armored Training Center)
  • Command Company
  • I Armored Infantry Battalion (with a mix of Leopard 1A2 main battle tanks and VCC-2 armored personnel carriers)
  • II Armored Infantry (Reserve) Battalion
  • 170th Self-propelled Field Artillery Group
  • Logistic Battalion
• 45th Infantry (Training) Battalion Arborea, in Macomer
• 21st Light Aviation Squadrons Group Orsa Maggiore, at Cagliari-Elmas Air Base
• 47th Signal Battalion Gennargentu, in Cagliari
• 12th Mixed Transport Battalion, in Cagliari
• 12th Medical Company, in Cagliari
• 12th Supply Company, in Nuoro
• 12th Maintenance Company, in Cagliari

When the Italian Army disbanded a large number of its mechanized brigades in Northern Italy after the end of the Cold War, the Sassaris infantry battalions were mechanized and received VCC-2 armored personnel carriers. Accordingly the brigade changed its name on 1 January 1991 to Sassari Mechanized Brigade. Over the next years Sassari became a fully professionalized brigade, one of the first Italian brigades to do so. In the early 1990s the Italian Army for traditional reasons began to rename battalions as regiment; thus the Sassari consisted by the end of 1993 of the following units:

• Sassari Command and Tactical Support Battalion, in Sassari
  • Sassari Headquarter Company
  • Sassari Signal Company
  • Sassari Engineer Company
• 45th Infantry (Training) Regiment Reggio, in Macomer (Regiment on 1 September 1993)
• 151st Infantry Regiment Sassari, in Cagliari (Regiment on 30 July 1992)
• 152nd Infantry Regiment Sassari, in Sassari (Regiment on 25 October 1992)

The brigade saw two changes to its structure in the following years: on 1 January 2003 the 45th Regiment Reggio was disbanded and replaced by the 5th Engineer Regiment and on 25 November 2009 the 3rd Bersaglieri Regiment arrived from Milan and merged with the I Battalion of the 1 Armored Infantry Regiment in Teulada.

The Brigade employed often in out of area operations and has served in Kosovo, Afghanistan and in Iraq, where it lost seven soldiers in various engagements with Iraqi insurgents.