500 soldiers

Large-scale exercise with detonating ammunition and illuminants

180 cadre soldiers, 120 recruits, 200 militia soldiers, military police and other participants are taking part in the exercise.(Bild: HBF/Daniel TRIPPOLT)

500 soldiers are taking part in the "Transversalis24" exercise in the Upper Carinthia region from today. Firecracker ammunition, flares and smoke grenades will be used until Friday. There will also be roadblocks. 

Soldiers from Hochgebirgsjägerbataillon 26, the militia and the military police are practising the protection of main traffic routes and the transportation of important supplies. As part of a final exercise, conscripts will be deployed in the Lieser, Malta and Drau valleys with several trucks, small vehicles and the "BVS10 Hägglunds" all-terrain vehicles. There is therefore no use of the A10 between Rennweg and Feistritz/Drau.

Do not collect ammunition parts
The Carinthian military command warns that these exercises involve the use of detonating ammunition and illuminants as well as smoke grenades and asks you not to collect any ammunition or ammunition parts but to report them to the nearest police station or the Austrian Armed Forces. 

Four helicopters in action
During the same period, exercises will also take place in the Gurk and Metnitz valleys by the Klagenfurt Airborne Fighter Battalion 25 and the Villach Engineer Battalion 1 - both units of the 7th Fighter Brigade/Hunting Combat. Up to four S-70 "Black Hawk" and Agusta Bell 212 helicopters will be circling over Carinthia's skies: "We ask for your understanding for the helicopter noise," says the Austrian Armed Forces.