After the end of the Cold War the corps was reduced in size and on 1 December 2000 it ceded its last brigades to the 1st Defence Forces Command (COMFOD 1°).

Following the Italian-French victory over the Austrian Empire, the Kingdom of Sardinia annexed the Papal Legations in present-day Emilia Romagna.

However the 5th Alpini Regiment was never employed as a whole, but single companies or battalions were given specific mountain summits, ridges or passes to conquer and hold.

The next day the Italian divisions crossed the border in force, but stiff French resistance stopped them along the entire front after a few kilometres.

Afterwards the III Army Corps advanced to Thebes where it remained on garrison duty until September 1943 when it surrendered to German forces after the Italian-Allied armistice.

On 15 June 1945 the III Territorial Military Command was activated in Milan which at the time controlled only the Infantry Division Legnano in Bergamo.

In 1975 the Italian Army undertook a major reorganisation: the regimental level was abolished and battalions came under direct command of brigades, which combined units from different combat arms.

The 3rd Army Corps was to either act as last line of defence along the Adige and Po rivers or to counter-attack broken through enemy forces in the Venetian plains.

In 1982 Bersaglieri of the Legnano brigade were deployed in Italys first operation outside its soil since World War II as part of the Multinational Force in Lebanon.

In September 1993 the Legnano brigade deployed to Somalia in support of United Nations Unified Task Force mission.

In spring 1997 the Corps assumed responsibility for Operation Alba, the first multinational mission led by Italy, in the wake of the Albanian Rebellion of 1997.

On 1 October 1997 the 3rd Army Corps changed its name and became the Projection Forces Command (Comando Forze di Proiezione or COMFOP) and gained the Parachute Brigade Folgore, the Bersaglieri Brigade ''Garibaldi'' and the amphibious Lagunari Regiment Serenissima, thus the corps commanded all rapidly deployable units of the Italian Army.