had proven worthless against British armor. After several days 208 tanks were destroyed in this way. While techniques to destroy armored vehicles are not typically part of martial arts instruction programs, given the exploits of "Folgore", they could be considered a key part of Italian Martial Arts. It does not therefore come as a surprise that the Italian Army has developed a hand-to-hand system known as Metodo di Combattimento Militare and that the 187th Paratrooper Regiment of Folgore Brigade has played a leading role in developing this system. Modern Italian Elite Units Several Italian Elite military or police units have developed their own armed and unarmed combat systems. The Navy's Arditi Incursori of COMSUBIN have developed a system, but little information is known about it. From available video footage it appears that it blends techniques from martial arts such as judo, jiu jitsu and kickboxing, resembling "Kick Jitsu" (see later). The Incursori train in full combat gear, including firearms. The Carabinieri elite intervention unit, Gruppo di intervento speciale has also developed an armed/unarmed combat system. From a documentary] released on Italian TV it appears that the unit blended techniques from Judo, Karate, Wu-Shu, Savate, Full-contact kickboxing and Muay Thai to create their own system. The GIS operators also adopt a form of Functional training to keep in shape. Perhaps the best known operation involving the use of martial arts is the one carried out in the 1980s by the Nucleo Operativo Centrale di Sicurezza also known as NOCS. It is well known that an operator of NOCS dispatched one of the kidnappers of US general James L. Dozier with a karate chop during the rescue. NOCS is rumored to have had Olympic-level athletes amongst its ranks, particularly in combat sports and weight-lifting. To this day NOCS maintains a working relationship with the Italian federation of Weightlifting. There is no information on what martial arts system is actually used by the NOCS unit, and it is quite possible that this police unit devised its own combat method. Most law enforcements agencies in Italy have adopted a system called Metodo globale di autodifesa or MGA which is a compilation of techniques derived from various martial arts and which has been approved by the Federazione Italiana Judo Lotta Karate Arti Marziali (FIJLKAM). The evolution of martial arts training in elite units Elite military and police units tend to integrate firearms (and firearms retention)