After the end of the Cold War the corps was reduced in size and on 1 October 1997 it became the 1st Defence Forces Command (COMFOD 1°).

At the outbreak of the third Italian war of independence the V Army Corps remained at first in Florence, but when the main Italian army failed to break through the Austrian Quadrilatero fortress system south of Lake Garda in the Battle of Custoza, the corps marched six divisions over the Apennine mountains, joined up with General Enrico Cialdinis eight divisions of the IV Army Corps in the Romagna and crossed the lower Po and Adige rivers in force on 11 July 1866.

Bypassing the Austrian fortresses and main army on his left flank Cialdini marched his army all through the Veneto, dispatching one division under Giacomo Medici to invade Trentino and cut the Austrian line of retreat and three divisions under Raffaele Cadorna to march at speed to the city of Trieste.

Although numerically superior the corps failed to reach the city of Trento and its advance through the Adige and Valsugana valleys and over the Asiago plateau soon bogged down in determined Austrian resistance.

All soldiers of the 6th Alpini Regiment had been recruited from valleys in the area of operations and thus fought in a territory they knew perfectly well.

However the 6th 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.

After the end of combat operations the corps took up garrison duties along the Dalmatian coast, but found itself quickly fighting Yugoslav partisans.

To cover its right flank against enemy amphibious landings the command raised the Lagunari troops in Venice on 15 January 1951.

Over the next years the corps added further units to keep up with the geopolitical situation of the Cold War: the Ariete was further increased and received M47 Patton tanks and M113 armored personnel carriers, as well as one artillery group armed with M44 self-propelled howitzers and one artillery group armed with M110 self-propelled howitzers.

The MGR-1 Honest John was a nuclear-capable surface-to-surface missile intended to destroy the large Warsaw Pact armored formations.

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

In 1986 the Italian Army abolished the divisional level and realigned its forces to counter a possible Warsaw Pact attack better.

The Garibaldi completed its move to Caserta in the South of Italy on 1 July 1991 and left the 5th Army Corps on that day.

On 1 October 1997 the 5th Army Corps changed its name and became the 1st Defence Forces Command (1° Comando Forze di Difesa or COMFOD 1°).

Before being disbanded the 1st Defence Forces Command was located in the northern Italian City of Vittorio Veneto and consisted of the following units: