Page 22 - Rifles 2017 Issue No 3

Infantry Training Centre Catterick: An overview
WEAPON HANDLING AND SHOOTING IS CLEARLY AN IMPORTANT ASPECT OF INFANTRY TRAINING
20 TRAINING
It has been a period of some uncertainty and change within the 1st Infantry Training Battalion (1 ITB). Army 2020 Re ne (A2020R) made changes to the Divisions of Line Infantry, most notably reducing it from 5 to 4 by removing the Prince Of Wales Division. The Line Infantry Divisions come the 1st of April will be; Ri es, Kings (now including the Mercian’s), Queens and the Scots Welsh and Irish Division (SWI).
Since the A2020R announcement on 16 Dec 17 the need for change in 1ITB has been evident. To meet this change the Commanding Of cer of 1ITB, Lt Col Bell (Royal Irish), gave direction for 6 different Courses of Action (CoA’s) to be examined by Company HQ’s in mixed cap badge teams. After time spent in CoA development it was decided that 1ITB would move from 5 battle-grouped Companies based on the current Divisions of Infantry to 4 with the 5th Company rebranding as ‘Peninsula’ Company which is not directly aligned to any Division. Peninsula was chosen as it is a battle honour shared by all of the regiments in 1ITB.
The current liability for the Peninsula Coy will stay the same; however there is a shift of career management and welfare systems from the old POW Coy to the Kings and SWI. The current HQ for Scots Coy has become the SWI and is now to manage the permanent staff and recruits from the Royal Irish and Royal Welsh. The Kings Division HQ took over the same responsibilities for the Mercian staff and recruits. The retraining and rehabilitation platoon (Waterloo) is managed by Peninsula Coy as it was under POW. The Ri es Company has remained untouched by the changes and continues to form a platoon every month.
One of the driving reasons behind this decision was the limited time scale the battalion was working against. The new Divisions of Infantry will be extant from 1st Apr 17, therefore the change in 1ITB will be live from this period. The change also limits the amount of public money spent on rebranding; other CoA’s discussed involved complete separation from the divisions, this would obviously incur a cost as new rank slides and signs etc would need to be produced.
It may seem like the path of least resistance, but to provide security in the short term and to ensure we have the capability to train 2000 recruits a year, the restructure makes sense. This is not to say in the future 1ITB will not go through another period of restructure as we face the uncertainty of an infantry in declining numbers.
Maj Dean Murch MBE, OC Ri es Company
Weeks 1 to 12 at Catterick
There has been a lot of talk across the Army in recent years about changes in the standards for Ri emen at Infantry Training Centre Catterick. This article is not a discussion of whether the standards are harder, easier, or just more relevant to the modern role of the Army in a new geopolitical landscape. Instead it is an explanation of what the Ri emen actually do while ‘up north’.
The Combat Infantryman’s Course (CIC) is 26 weeks long and is normally split in to three phases of 12, 7 and 7 weeks in length, separated by a week of leave between each. The exception to this is when a course is split by Christmas and the leave becomes more complicated.
Having just completed the rst 12 weeks of training my platoon, this article will focus on that phase.
The aim of the rst 12 weeks is to set the founda- tions so that ‘proper’ infantry training can be done in later phases. The focus is on tness, Values & Standards, and weapon handling. In addition are basic eldcraft, tactics, Battle eld Casualty Drills training and navigation.
The course starts fast. The Ri emen are quickly introduced to a number of new skills and march a signi cant distance around camp. Discipline is introduced, albeit with strict guidance on what is permissible, and the Ri emen begin to understand Army life. The days are long, but a balance has to be struck as ITC(C) is a learning environment and fatigue reduces the Ri eman’s ability to absorb infor- mation. The stress placed on the Cpl instructors is immense. As well as having a responsibility to the Army to produce the best quality soldier, and being responsible for the Ri emen under them, they are also under the microscope from the School of Infantry (SCHINF) which sets and enforces strict policies. It is easy to see why we reserve these jobs for the top Corporals in The Ri es.
The physical training at ITC(C) has been completely changed over recent years with the introduction of Project Omega. The main change is that, rather than expecting each Ri eman to be able to pass each test within the rst few weeks, the Ri emen are expected to reach the output standard at the end of the course. The result of this has been that injury rates are down and fewer Ri emen are failing to meet the standard. Sessions focus on strength and conditioning in the gym initially. After a few weeks the rst TABs are introduced and by week 11 the Ri emen are expected to do a 6 mile TAB with 20kg at Annual Fitness Test pace.
Values & Standards recently got a facelift with the introduction of the Army Leadership Code. Regardless of what we call it, the Ri emen need to understand what is expected of them and why it is so important to uphold this standard while in the Army. The standard issue powerpoint presentations are augmented with a healthy amount of Band of Brothers to help illustrate points and to keep them awake.
Weapon handling and shooting is clearly an important aspect of infantry training and most of the Ri emen have clearly been looking forward to this part. The standard can vary from very good to hilar- iously bad, and is often affected by the weather. By the end of 12 weeks the Ri emen will have passed Weapon Handling Tests on the Ri e and Light Machine Gun, and have completed their Ri e Annual Combat Marksmanship Test.
The rst 12 weeks contain 3 Introductory THE RIFLES
TRAINING