{"id":52654,"date":"2023-08-08T23:51:12","date_gmt":"2023-08-08T21:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=52654"},"modified":"2025-08-08T00:30:24","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T22:30:24","slug":"crisex-83-a-huge-military-exercise-with-the-us-against-a-possible-invasion-of-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/08\/08\/crisex-83-a-huge-military-exercise-with-the-us-against-a-possible-invasion-of-spain\/","title":{"rendered":"Crisex 83, a huge military exercise with the US against a possible invasion of Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Between October 31 and November 8, 1983, during the Cold War, some important maneuvers took place in southern Spain.<\/p>\n

A landing of M-60A3 TTS tanks of the Spanish Marine Infantry in Egypt<\/a><\/rel>
\nThe Air Arm of the Spanish Navy in old photographs of the US National Archives<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n

The exercise, called Crisex 83, gathered 10,000 Spanish soldiers and 3,000 US soldiers<\/a>, the contingent being much smaller than expected, since 9,000 marines could not join these maneuvers when they were mobilized by two very recent events:<\/strong> the Islamist attack perpetrated on October 23, 1983 against the Multinational Force in Lebanon in Beirut<\/strong>, in which 307 people were assassinated (among them 241 US soldiers) and the invasion of Grenada<\/strong> on October 25, 1983, as a response of an international coalition to the pro-Soviet coup in that Caribbean country.<\/p>\n

Crisex 83 was based on the assumption of an invasion of Portugal by an enemy force, which would end up penetrating Spain<\/strong> in the direction of C\u00e1ceres, Badajoz and Seville. The exercise was part of a series of biannual maneuvers that began in 1979, and included the participation of units of the US Navy 6th Fleet and the US Air Force<\/strong>, including strategic bombers Boeing B-52G Stratofortress and McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle fighters.<\/p>\n

On behalf of Spain, the Infantry Regiment \"Pav\u00eda\" no. 19 FAMET<\/strong>, a unit of the Paratrooper Brigade (BRIPAC) and the the Army Air Mobile Forces (FAMET<\/strong>); the Tercio de Armada (TEAR<\/strong>) and the Amphibious Group of the Fleet and the Combat Group of the Navy; and the Alert and Control Wing<\/strong>, as well as aircraft from the Air Force Combat Air Command (MACOM<\/strong>), among other units.<\/p>\n

About the 40th anniversary of this enormous exercise<\/strong>, you can see below some photos of it that I found in the National Archives of the United States.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A Spanish LVTP-7 amphibious armored vehicle <\/strong> (today known as AAV-7) of the Tercio de Armada on Matalasca\u00f1as beach, in Huelva, where disembarkation maneuvers took place during this exercise (source: NARA<\/a>).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A USAF North American Rockwell OV-10 Bronco light attack and observation aircraft <\/strong>, deployed at the Mor\u00f3n Air Base during this exercise (source: NARA<\/a>).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Spanish soldiers of the Tercio de Armada <\/strong> in the landing operation in Matalasca\u00f1as (source: NARA<\/a>).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

An M-48A5E2 tank from the Army <\/strong> in Matalasca\u00f1as, during the exercise (source: NARA<\/a>).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Another Spanish M-48 tank<\/strong>, in this case an M-48A3E from the Company of Cars of the Amphibious Mechanized Group (today the Third Mechanized Landing Battalion, BDMZ-III) of the Tercio de Armada (source: NARA<\/a>).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A US Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter<\/strong> in ambulance version in low-flying in Matalasca\u00f1as during this exercise (source: NARA<\/a>).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The disembarkation of a Spanish M-48A3E tank <\/strong> of the Tercio de Armada Car Company on the beach of Matalasca\u00f1as (source: NARA<\/a>).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A Spanish Bell UH-1H helicopter from the FAMET <\/strong>flying next to a column of M-113 armored personnel carriers from the Spanish Army (source: NARA<\/a>).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A USAF Boeing B-52G Stratofortress strategic bomber <\/strong> deployed at the Mor\u00f3n Air Base during this exercise (source: NARA<\/a>).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The crew members of an M-113 armored vehicle from the Spanish Army <\/strong> during this exercise. The machine gun is a 12.7mm Browning M-2. The US National Archives misclassified this photo as being of an M-48 tank (source: NARA<\/a>).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Spanish soldiers of the Tercio de Armada during the landing in Matalasca\u00f1as.<\/strong> In the photo we see two of the landing craft for mechanized means (LCM) of American origin that the Spanish Navy had at the time, the LCM-15 and the LCM-17 (source: NARA<\/a>).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A USAF F-15 Eagle fighter <\/strong> deployed at the Mor\u00f3n Air Base during that exercise (source: NARA<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Between October 31 and November 8, 1983, during the Cold War, some important maneuvers took place in southern Spain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19536,11549],"tags":[19886,19882,1104,1048,19881,19884,7515,9803,19883,6262,11583,17867,15994,6182,11462,11875,10557,12858,10669,6842,6761,318,319],"class_list":["post-52654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-we-said-yesterday","category-military-history","tag-6th-fleet","tag-ala-de-alerta-y-control","tag-boeing-b-52-stratofortress","tag-famet","tag-grupo-anfibio-de-la-flota","tag-grupo-mecanizado-anfibio","tag-m-113","tag-m-48-patton","tag-matalascanas","tag-mcdonnell-douglas-f-15-eagle","tag-moron-air-base","tag-north-american-rockwell-ov-10-bronco","tag-regimiento-de-infanteria-pavia-no19","tag-sikorsky-uh-60-black-hawk","tag-spain","tag-spanish-air-force","tag-spanish-army","tag-spanish-marine-infantry","tag-spanish-navy","tag-tercio-de-armada-tear","tag-united-states-air-force-usaf","tag-us-army","tag-us-navy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52654"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52654\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}