In recent days, two major training exercises took place in Colombia, specifically at the Tolemaida Military Fort and the Larandia Military Base in the Caquetá department. The objective of these trainings was to enhance capabilities in Air Assault, Parachuting, and Aerial Insertion between the Colombian Army and the United States.
The first exercise was “Hydra III: Capability Exchange,” where the U.S. and Colombian armies conducted a jump from 1,000 feet with a static line. This exercise involved 240 parachutists and ended with a traditional badge exchange between the two forces. Prior to the jump, training and retraining were conducted by instructors such as Second Sergeant Fraile Rentería Córdoba, head of the Military Parachuting School, who guided participants through each step.
The event was attended by General Phillip Ryan, Commander of U.S. Southern Command, and Major General Luis Emilio Cardozo Santamaría, Commander of the National Army, who set the goal to “strengthen cooperation ties between the forces and enhance the capabilities of the men and women who make them up, maintaining a high level of interoperability, with doctrine, tactics, and techniques as the fundamental base for improving the execution of our procedures.”
One of the participants, Sub-Lieutenant Tatiana Jara from the National Army Communications School, shared her experience: “It is important because it helps us strengthen our capabilities as parachutists and soldiers and equips us to train troops across the entire national territory.”
The second exercise was aimed at the Disaster Prevention Engineer Battalion No. 80 Brigadier General Álvaro López Vargas, from the Colombian Army. At the Air Assault School, they learned about anchoring knots, rappelling, and helicopter-borne operations. They used height platforms and mock-ups of aircraft such as the UH-1 Huey II, Mi-17 Hip, and UH-60 Black Hawk for exercises including rappelling, inverted rappelling, fast rope, wall rappelling with weapons, and rappelling with a board.
As this training was for the disaster prevention engineering battalion, special emphasis was placed on developing rescue and humanitarian insertion skills. This unit was activated in 2021 to support Colombian society in response to catastrophic events such as earthquakes, fires, landslides, and floods. They are equipped with specialized personnel trained in rescue operations, medical emergencies, and construction focused on disaster prevention.
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