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The UPDF delivering orders around a model pit
THE UGANDAN MARINES WERE TRULY GRATEFUL
by groups of locals indulging in party picnics and loud reggae music, which at times did disrupt our training serials, but as expected, we adapted and made light of the situation.
The first week of the training package was to go back to the basics of amphibious operations and the Combat Estimate, tailored specifically to the Ugandan officers and warrant officers as boat group commanders. Concurrently, the Navy medic and our NCOs delivered a Team Medic Course to the Ugandan NCOs and marines which was very well-received and taken seriously, noting their
impending deployment; the role-play scenarios of applying tourniquets and FFDs could be lifesaving for them. The main body of the training then consisted of teaching, drilling and refining their low level TTPs, starting at the individual level and culmi- nating at troop-level activity. The ‘train the trainer’ model was seen as the optimal method, so the officers and warrant officers were equipped with the tools to continue progressing autonomously in the final weeks of their PDT.
With our coxswains taking the Ugandan troops through Vessel Board Search and Seize (VBSS), boat formations and beaching procedures, using our skill at arms instructors to demo each action, this paved the way for a raid FTX. The mission planners were put through their paces using the Combat Estimate handrail before conducting a VBSS on a fishing vessel out on the lake. They then conducted a beaching, clearing enemy positions and estab- lishing VCPs along the way, before completing a final fighting withdrawal back onto the assault boats.
The final exercise was a success, as was the STTT in general. For the training team it was a warm and welcome break from the freezing tempera- tures of arctic Norway which most of the team had recently returned from. The Ugandan marines were truly grateful for the upskilling in low-level tactical manoeuvres and we wished them the best of luck on their deployment before we recovered to the UK. The Ugandan marines are now deployed in Mogadishu alongside partner forces from Djibouti, Burundi, Ethiopia and Kenya, to reduce the threat posed by Al-Shabaab and other armed groups while enabling the gradual handover of security responsi- bilities to local forces.
The 77 Bde CULAD initiating a contact against the UPDF on the FTX
30 29 COMMANDO REGIMENT ROYAL ARTILLERY