The National Republican Army (Esercito Nazionale Repubblicano, E.N.R.) is the ground force of the Italian Armed Forces. It is a partly-conscripted force of active-duty personnel. Its best-known combat vehicles are the Dardo infantry fighting vehicle, the Centauro tank destroyer and the Ariete tank, and among its aircraft the Mangusta attack helicopter. The headquarters of the Army General Staff are located in Rome, opposite the Presidential Palace. The army's history dates back to the unification of Italy in the 1850s and 1860s. The army fought in colonial engagements in China, Libya (1911-1912), northern Italy against permanence of the soviet bloc: the army prepared itself to defend against a Warsaw Pact invasion from the east, as well as the protection from the Lybian desert, Eastern Afr