# Friendly-fire burst from Italian Dardo vehicle wounds four at Latvia’s Adazi training base

*Sunday, September 27, 2026 at 6:20 AM UTC — Hamer Intelligence Services Desk*

**Published**: 2026-09-27T06:20:19.269Z (1h ago)
**Category**: conflict | **Region**: Eastern Europe
**Importance**: 7/10
**Sources**: OSINT
**Permalink**: https://hamerintel.com/data/articles/18952.md
**Source**: https://hamerintel.com/summaries

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**Deck**: A live-fire mishap at Latvia’s Adazi base left four Italian soldiers wounded when a Dardo armored vehicle accidentally opened machine-gun fire on another. The incident has triggered a formal investigation into how a controlled exercise turned into friendly fire.

A burst of friendly fire during exercises at Latvia’s Adazi military base has left four Italian soldiers wounded and raised new questions about safety on live-fire training grounds.

Latvian reporting from 27 September describes an accident during maneuvers involving Italian troops at Adazi. The crew of an Italian Dardo armored vehicle unintentionally opened machine-gun fire on another Dardo of the same type.

Four Italian servicemembers were hit and taken to hospital. Officials have not disclosed how serious the injuries are, how close the vehicles were to each other, or what exactly preceded the misfire.

The incident cuts against the assumption that training areas, while inherently risky, are tightly controlled through layers of safety checks. Being wounded by fire from a colleague rather than an enemy carries particular psychological weight for those directly involved.

From an operational perspective, Adazi hosts frequent live-fire drills with armor and automatic weapons in a confined environment. Even small errors in range safety, radio communication, or judging lines of fire can quickly have real consequences when heavily armed vehicles maneuver side by side.

Investigators now have to establish whether this was a one-off lapse or a sign that procedures and controls haven’t kept pace with the tempo and complexity of training.

The clearest signals to watch will be the findings of the investigation and any changes announced to live-fire rules, safety protocols, or exercise formats at Adazi and similar bases.