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Tag Archives: Carabinieri

Task Force Olimpica

Posted on February 9, 2026 by laststandonzombieisland Leave a comment

If you got to enjoy the opening ceremonies for the Winter Olympics over the weekend, you were sure to catch some uniforms familiar to military history buffs and American personnel who have been stationed in Italy at any time in the past 80 years.

Task Force Olimpica, organized to support the games across eight different complexes, includes 1,928 active duty Italian military personnel– mainly from the elite “Black feathers” of the 6° Reggimento Alpini- 170 vehicles, and numerous operational assets on the ground, including radars and air defense aircraft both on QRA and over the airspace.

Add to this another 2,000 legendary Carabinieri military police (with the entire Beretta catalog in hand).

You can bet that the Carabinieri’s Gruppo di Intervento Speciale (GIS) hostage rescue team and Tuscania Regiment’s CT team, as well as the national Police’s Nucleo Operativo Centrale di Sicurezza (NOCS) team, are on-site and well-rested should there be a Munich-kinda situation.

This is all complemented by the invaluable contribution of 1,500 volunteers, aged 18-65, from the National Alpini Association (Associazione Nazionale Alpini, or ANA), the veterans group for the Alpini Corps mountain troops. These guys are doing all the support stuff, such as driving vehicles, ushering competitors, and keeping trails and slopes clear and safe.

Lots of feathers and funny hats, but don’t let the smiles fool you, these outfits are among the best in the world at what they do.

Besides being seen and unseen on the periphery, they were there at the flag raisings, with Alpini raising the Olympic flag and Carabinieri the Italian flag.

Further, one of the flagbearers for the Italian team marching into the stadium was Carabinieri Maresciallo Federica Brignone. She well earned her place on the team, as the skier won the 2025 World Cup, the gold medal in the Giant Slalom, and the silver medal in the Super-G at the 2025 World Championships in Saalbach, as well as the 2025 World Cups in Giant Slalom and Downhill.

Beretta Could Soon Bring a Sweet New PCC to the U.S.

Posted on July 26, 2021 by laststandonzombieisland Leave a comment

Italian gunmaker Beretta has lifted the curtain overseas on its PMXs, a new semi-automatic variant of the company’s PMX sub-machinegun.

The planned replacement to the classic M-12 SMG of the 1960s (aka The Spaghetti Uzi), the select-fire PMX was introduced in 2017, using a lot more polymer but almost doubling the older gun’s rate of fire from a sedate 550 rounds-per-minute to a more scorching 900. It has been adopted by the Italian national police, the famed Carabinieri, and a few other agencies.

To make the gun more of a pistol caliber carbine, the PMXs is a semi-auto-only model “dedicated to the civil sector.” Beretta says the PMXs is now available on the consumer market in Italy but is soon to be seen in other markets sometime in 2022.

Sure, it is gonna need to lose the stock and VFG, but other than that, the PMXs could be a solid win for PCC fans.

Plinking with a Carabiniere hogleg

Posted on January 7, 2019 by laststandonzombieisland One comment

Dating back to 1814, and as such predating modern Italy, the Carabinieri are that country’s famous national gendarmerie force.

These guys

Long equipped with Beretta-made sub guns, LMGs, rifles, and handguns, the force has always been well-armed. Back in WWII, they used the M934 Beretta in 9mm Corto (.380ACP), replacing it in the 1950s with Beretta’s popular M1951 Brigadier series in 9mm Para. That gun, a single-stack 8-shot locked breech, short-recoil semi-auto, was modified and given a double-stack magazine, making the Beretta 92 that we know today.

Adopted by the Carabinieri in the 1970s, the early 92S is much the same as today’s 92FS, with the exception of some minor internal differences and the same M1951-style magazine release button located towards the bottom of the left-side grip.

Note the near-heel release

Replaced by more modern versions, these retired gendarmerie guns were imported in big numbers to the U.S. in the past couple of years.

Like, crate loads

Sure, they are 30~ years old, but the average LE handgun is only fired 2-4 times a year (if it is issued) for qualification and familiarization, with the round count likely at the 200-ish mark per annum. That translates to about 6,000 rounds downrange over a three-decade service life (if it was issued for all 30 of those years.) Even if you double that, you are only looking at 12K rounds. As the average durability of Beretta M9 slides is over 35,000 rounds, frames are over 30,000 rounds, and locking blocks are 22,000 rounds, they are only about a third of the way through their likely lifespan.

I picked up a few from SOG last fall (before they went out of business!) for sub-$300 and spent the better part of the day on Sunday giving one of these beaters a workout.

il mio amore…(also, note the cutouts for the mag release)

In all, I put some 250 rounds of Winchester White Box 124 grain FMJ (if it makes it with WWB, it will make it with anything, lol!) through it with (zero) malfunctions.

Seems to still hold the point of aim…

weapons

Combat Gallery Sunday: Historic gendarmes a go-go

Posted on August 12, 2018 by laststandonzombieisland Leave a comment

Much as once a week I like to take time off to cover warships (Wednesdays), on Sundays (when I feel like working), I like to cover military art and the painters, illustrators, sculptors, photographers and the like that produced them.

Combat Gallery Sunday: Historic gendarmes a go-go

The following provosts, military police, Feldjäger, and gendarmerie unit portrayals, principally from the 19th Century, come from the New York Public Library’s Hendrik Jacobus Vinkhuijzen collection of military uniforms.

Enjoy!