Page 73 - Rifles 2017 Issue No 3

Light Mechanized Conversion – Autumn 2016
Army 2020 directed 3 RIFLES to convert from a Light Role battalion to a Light Protected Mobility or Light Mechanized (Lt Mech) battalion using the Afghanistan proven Foxhound vehicle as the main platform. In the autumn of 2016 3 RIFLES began its conversion with B Company rst to convert. It was an almost entirely new training concept for 3 RIFLES, moving from light-role to Lt Mech and utilising vehicles for manoeuvre – something not held in the battalions DNA.
Over two months B Company trained 25 drivers and 22 commanders on two and three week courses respectively. Ri emen learnt how to service, repair and manoeuvre the Foxhounds. Perhaps the biggest challenge for those on the drivers course was understanding the step-up in size and capability from the road cars they are used to driving. Some had only obtained their car and HGV license within the same month. The commanders studied how to aid the drivers, read and travel over varying terrain and how best to use the state of art camera equipment on the vehicles. This equipment included day situational awareness cameras, night vision devices (NVDs) and thermal imagery cameras, which all fed into the same screen.
Upon completion of the courses, the company rolled out of Dreghorn Barracks and exercised for 10 days in Kirkcudbright, on the west coast of Scotland. It was here the dismounts, drivers
and commanders really began to learn about the vehicles and how to operate with and from them. They started to understand how hard and far they could push the vehicle, how to dig them out of soft terrain, which maintenance jobs were likely to become routine and importantly how to ght from and out of them.
No rm doctrine has been produced on how to operate with these vehicles, so the Ri emen could truly experiment with the equipment and ultimately feed back into the system best practice. By the end of the 10 days B Company was on the right path to success; yes there were still lots to learn in mastering the vehicle platform, but two months previously 90% of the company had only ever been in the back of a troop carrying vehicle (TCV). A high tempo couple of months for B Company but a lot was learnt. Following conversion to Light Mech it was announced as part of the A2020 Re ne programme that the battalion would switch to Heavy Mechanized – another round of conversion.
Capt Andrew Jenkinson, B Coy 2IC
BY THE END OF THE 10 DAYS B COY WAS ON THE RIGHT PATH TO SUCCESS
Foxhounds line the Battalion square ready for B Company’s light mech conversion
THE RIFLES
THIRD BATTALION 71