For the 606 RAF Regiment Flt, 2012 sees the push towards a live field firing exercise at the infamous Sennybridge Military Training Area, Wales. It brings together the general warfare infantry skills of surviving and operating in a field environment together with the precision firing skills on the L85 A2 Rifle, LSW (Light Support Weapon) and GPMG (General Purpose Machine Gun). Naturally, this type exercise can’t be conducted without the prerequisite training, here is just a flavour of what’s been achieved so far:
The ROFA (Regiment Operational Fitness Assessment), testing both strength and stamina, the assessment consists of:
Day One - A 10km march carrying 35kg in no longer than 1hr 45mins.
Day Two – A speed march of 3.2km whilst carrying 24kg.
Lift a deadweight of 40kg onto the back of a 4 tonne truck.
Carry two full jerry cans each weighing 20kgs over 50m in less than 30 seconds.
Drag a 71kg dummy over 50m in less than 30 seconds.
Seeing a 100% pass rate, it set the year off on the right footing. What better way to blow out the Christmas cobwebs than sticking a bergan on your back and yomping 10km?
OBUA (Operating in Built-up Areas), a theatre-specific environment design to test soldiers’ warfare skills to the max. It requires excellent command and control, fitness, endurance, speed, accuracy, and high team morale to to work in this environment. 606 Regt Flt traveled to RAF Honnington to team up with 2623 RAF Reserve Regiment Squadron to conduct this specialist training. Darting through alleys, crawling through tunnels and climbing onto rooftops is enough for anyone, but add kit, weapons and “enemy” to that, you have one awesome training exercise. Everyone came away feeling the aches and pains but all having fully enjoyed the weekend and learning valuable skills at the same time.
Ranges - Annual Combat Marksmanship Test, Moving-Target and Automatic Ranges, and Fireteam Assessment. A series of ranges is aimed at building up soldiers’ shooting ability over a number practices incorporating different positions (prone, kneeling, sitting and standing) and at distances ranging from 100m-400m. The test is just the beginning before progressing on to more challenging moving-target and automatic ranges, conducted Hythe and Lydd, near Folkestone. The weather was fantastic and it made for an ideal range weekend with some great scores to boot. The fireteam assessment weekend at Pirbright was a stark contrast though, the great british weather fulfilled its obligation: “if it ain’t raining, it ain’t training”. Patrolling through streams, assaulting across flooded grassland and firing in horizontal rain, it was uncomfortable at first but fantastic fun and great training value. The flight showed their progression with some great scores, despite the weather.
Field - Observation Posts (OPs) and Fighting in Woods and Forests (FIWAF)
Operating in a field environment is the fundamental building block for all training and it’s vital to keep the skills refreshed. The flight patrolled in on foot, as if carrying the weight wasn't challenging enough, the weather was very hot, ideal for BBQs, which all our friends and family were doing back home. Once establishing a flight harbour location we refreshed ourselves with close-quarter battle lanes, and fire-and-maneuver exercises; afterwhich some time to relax and get a good meal down whilst orders were prepped for the nights activities. Observation posts were the tasking for the night, patrolling out and watching a target for “enemy” activity and reporting back.... without being seen. The following day saw a lesson in the intricacies of fighting in woods and forests. Complex tactics and scrambling through dense shrub, mixed with an enemy threat makes for a very challenging environment. The flight were familiarised with the basics with a view to in-depth practice at Sennybridge.
On to Sennybridge
The flight have had a fantastic year and now eagerly await putting the past months of training into good practice in the vast, challenging hills of Sennybridge Training Area, Wales. 606 Regt Flt teamed up with 2622 Highland Sqn for Exercise Joint Endeavour. The two weeks were split into two parts, the first, a theatre specific field exercise, and the second, a live field firing exercise.
In true form, the exercise commenced with a loaded ‘tab in’, to establish patrol bases where we would operate over the coming days. The flights mounted standing patrols, set up observation posts and conducted vehicle checkpoints (VCPs) throughout day and night. Observing ‘enemy’ activity and gathering intelligence, information was fed back to HQ in real time which made the exercise as real as possible. Intelligence suggested that the enemy were operating from a wood North-West of the patrol base, which is where we would mount our deliberate op; putting into practice the skills we had learnt on the build up. The Flt cleared buildings en-route to the form-up-point, where , after a simulated mortar bombardment, we launched the wood clearance. The wood was wide and dark and it wasn’t long before we had enemy contact. It was hard to keep momentum, rolling up one position after the next and pushing through the dense undergrowth. Having made it the other side.....casualty! (simulated) The main focus was getting the casualty patched up and extracted to a heli pick-up-point, 1 section looked after the casualty, whilst 2 section recced a suitable landing site, 3 section and gun group providing overwatch. After a long stretcher carry the casualty was extracted and we returned to HQ to complete the field exercise. Hard work and really enjoyable, putting our training to the test in a realistic scenario.
On to live field firing! There would be grenades, rifles and machine guns, we spent some time building up our skills on the weapon systems as well as practicing our movement across the ground. Going through live battle lanes as individuals (1), fire teams (4), and section (8) we progressed through the second week. Patrolling over hills, through ditches, bogs and streams, and carrying a full complement of live ammunition, there was plenty of adrenaline flowing when the ‘contacts’ came. The live field firing culminated in a Flight (24+) attack across a steep open valley, the Flight had spent the night out in the woods and tabbed in to launch the clearance.
Machine guns firing tracer in from the hillside, we launched. Pushing up the hill, we assaulted the first position, the grenade thundered around the hills and was followed by a huge rate of automatic fire. “Position clear”, we moved on to the next.... and the next, it took a couple of hours to clear the whole valley. Last position taken, we sustained a simulated casualty. Already exhausted from the assaults we extracted the casualty back over the ground we had just cleared. The exercise was called to a halt, what an awesome sense of achievement, a year+ in the build up, and we achieved live field firing.
We all worked hard and were pouring with sweat by the end but it was absolutely brilliant and could not have been done without the hard work of the regular, full-time and support staff training and supporting us throughout. Thank you!
