page_title: 1st Carabinieri Mobile Brigade
section_title: 1963-2001: 11th Carabinieri Brigade
hierarchical_section_title: 1st Carabinieri Mobile Brigade / History / 1963-2001: 11th Carabinieri Brigade
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Giovanni De Lorenzo
context_page_description: The 1st Carabinieri Mobile Brigade is a Carabinieri formation tasked with riot control, civil defence and security duties.
context_section_description: Following the 1960 Genoa clashes, a reform project for the Mobile Battalions was envisioned, but later abandoned. Both the organization and the equipment (which included old Sherman tanks) were found to be obsolete either inadequate to emergency tasks.p. 48
  In 1963, with the 1960s Army and Carabinieri reorganization, the XI Carabinieri Mechanized Brigade was established directly under the General Command led by Giovanni De Lorenzo, in order to cope with the internal territorial defence needs. The establishment of the new brigade was in order to adjust the organization of the Battalions and of cavalry units both for strictly military tasks, and those related to the protection of public order. The aim was to ensure Carabinieri Battalions the availability of all elements necessary to be in a position to act in isolation and overcome considerable resistance without having to rely on the competition of other Army Corps or other Armed Forces, to ensure Battalions' speed of movement and concentration in large sectors of foreseeable use and a constant high training level.
  Overall, the XI Carabinieri Mechanized Brigade consisted of about 5,000 men with 80 tracked vehicles, 200 other military vehicles, 130 M47 tanks and a paratroopers battalion. However, the brigade never had responsibility for actual unitary operational command, lacking supports due to a political choice, but exercised the tasks of instruction and preparation for the riot control activities.
  In the reorganization, Mobile Battalions were renamed simply Battalions and were marked with a sequential number, while remaining administratively dependent on the relevant Legion; the Battalions Groups were renamed Carabinieri Regiments, and were given the conceptual role of a resolution unit in both riot and tactical tasks; According original resolutions, Regiments were to have only disciplinary, training and deployment functions, while general management rested within the relevant Legion. The newly formed Mechanized Brigade exercised its operational and training authority on:
  1st Carabinieri Regiment (HQ Milan): commanding I, II, III and IV Battalions;
  2nd Carabinieri Regiment (HQ Rome): commanding V, VI, VIII and IX Battalions;
  3rd Carabinieri Regiment (HQ Naples): commanding X, XI and XII Battalions;
  4th Mounted Carabinieri Regiment (HQ Rome) with 2 Squadrons Groups (Battalion-level units) and 1 Armoured-motorized Squadron;
  VII Battalion (directly under the Brigade Command), under IV Army Corps; despite being the newest Battalion, the unit inherited traditions and number of the second battalion of Rome, which was disestablished.
  XIII Battalion (directly under the Brigade Command), under V Army Corps.
  The command structure of the XI Carabinieri Mechanized Brigade consisted of:
  Staff, with personnel management and training bodies;
  Services Office, with activation and research tasks;
  Army officers of Transmissions and Motorization organizations, with management, technical, inspecting and consulting tasks.
  Each Carabinieri Battalion was led by a lieutenant colonel or a major and consisted of: 1 Command Company (1 Command Platoon, 1 Services Platoon, 1 Scouts Platoon), 2 Rifle Companies (command platoon, 3 rifle platoons, 1 company weapons platoon each), 1 Mortars Company and 1 Tanks Company (Command Platoon, 3 Tanks Platoons). It was therefore a robust tactical complex. The Carabinieri Battalions had to be used only when the police and the local organization of the Carabinieri they had found insufficient, in order not to deprive the General Command of a valuable combat tool. Within the VII Battalion, based in Laives, the Counter-terrorism Special Company was established in 1960s to counter South Tyrolean terrorism;p. 187 the security operations were also supported by several Trucked Units. Both VII and XIII Battalions were to be always maintained at their full wartime force.
  The establishment of the XI Carabinieri Mechanized Brigade was controversial: some senior officers criticized the decision, deeming that the essential features of the Carabinieri were capillarity and foc
caption: Lieutenant General Giovanni De Lorenzo established the XI Mechanized Brigade when he was Carabinieri Commandant-General.
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