Military Mission presents equipment to the AFM

Military hardware, including transport vehicles, heavy plant equipment and spare parts for anti-aircraft guns was presented to the AFM yesterday by the Malta-based Italian Military Mission.

The equipment, worth €4 million, was handed over at a ceremony at 'Silver City' barracks, Pembroke.

The AFM said the equipment included staff cars, ambulances, coaches, and off-road troop carrier vans, bulldozers, excavators, cranes and large tipper trucks.

Also donated by the IMM were kit items related to de-mining and combat engineering, radio communications, anti-Nuclear-Biological-Chemical warfare, and maritime workshop equipment, which will all go a long way in supporting the AFM's roles, operations and duties in Malta.

The ceremony was presided by Chris Said, Parliamentary Secretary for Public Dialogue and Information. The hand-over was conducted by IMM's Commanding Officer, Colonel Rocco Vastolo, to AFM Commander Carmel Vassallo.

Italian Ambassador Paolo Andrea Trabalza recalled the support which Italian governments had given Malta through five financial protocol agreements and through the IMM's services over 35 years.