Page 32 - RSDG Year of 2023

30 EAGLE AND CARBINE
Adventure Training post Ex KHANJAR OMAN. Towards the end of the year, the LAD spent a very cold and wet seven weeks on Salisbury Plain Training Area (SPTA) conducting Live Fire, driver, and interoperability training before validating as NATOs Lead ISTAR Battle Group on Ex WESSEX STORM 2/23. Our Training Analysis Report (TAR) summarised that ‘equipment recovery and vehicle availability were exceptional,’ a combat indicator of an outstanding performance. Indeed, Throughout the year both at home and abroad, we have maintained particu- larly good vehicle availability. Our people, both as teams and as individuals, have been recognised formally for their efforts. These headlines do not tell the whole story, so I have asked a few of my troops to elaborate. Arte et Marte
SSgt Scott Wykes – LRRG LAD Operation Newcombe ROTO 5 Lt Cav Sqn Fitter Section Commander.
Nov 2022 – Jan 2023.
As OP NEWCOMBE ROTO 5 Task Group LAD, we were made up of Vehicle Mechanics, Electronics Technicians, Avionics Technicians, Armourers, Recovery Mechanics, and Metalsmiths augmented by 2 SCOTS LAD, 29 Engineer Regiment LAD, 32 Royal Artillery Workshop, 17 Port and Maritime Workshop and 1 Battalion REME. As a team, we met for the first-time during Ex GAO TEMPEST - our Mission Rehearsal Exercise (MRX) on STANTA Training Area near Cambridge. After six weeks of training and ranges, we were well prepared to deploy on Operations but due to gapping, we would deploy without a Task Group ASM or Task Group AQMS. Both roles would eventually be backfilled by the late arrivals of SSgt Richardson and SSgt Wilby. SSgt Richardson took command of the Light Mechanised Infantry Coy Fitter Section meeting his team for the first-time during acclimatisation in Mali. SSgt Wilby arrived on week two of the MRX and was informed that he would deploy to theatre as the ASM. I was given command of the Light Cavalry Squadron Fitter Section, and, between the three of us, we were tasked with maintaining the LRRGs 115 FOXHOUND, JACKAL, COYOTE, MASTIFF, and RIDGEBACK Protected Mobility Vehicles, its 850 weapons system as well as a multitude of optronic, EOD,
SSgt Wykes with Malian Children
ECM, and BOWMAN equipment – no easy task. After a particularly good Handover from SSgt Joe Entwistle (our own B Squadron Fitter Section Commander who had been attached to the ROYAL IRISH LAD on ROTO 4 with his team) my Fitter Section began preparing for Operation ELWAN, a six-day familiarisation patrol which would take us about 100km from Camp BAGNOLD.
It was apparent quickly that our first principles engineering skills as REME Soldiers would be put to the test in the desert. Mali was at the end of the longest supply chain in Defence, and we had learned a few false lessons in the UK during MRX by unit collecting critical spares and ST&E and moving them onto the training area. In all honesty, the availability of spares was outstanding in Mali, but when you have a failure in the desert you do not have three days to wait on an item and the use of Helicopters had declined as the Chinook Det closed a few months before. It became clear quickly why 1 ROYAL IRISH had adopted several PJHQ endorsed ‘donor vehicles’ in Camp Bagnold. My COYOTE and JACKAL HMTV reconnaissance vehicles were peerless in the desert and attrition levels were low. By working long and hard, we enabled every mission that followed, and I know my team provided good forward repair. The FOXHOUNDS, however, were highly susceptible to overheating. The Recovery Mechanics were kept busy, and it was routine to see the LMI Coy, a manoeuvre echelon behind us having to recover 2-3 vehicles on every patrol. SSgt Richardson certainly had a tougher task than me, but his availability was outstanding given the well-publicised overheating issues with FOXHOUND engine groups. Some of his Fitter Section’s work, particularly expedient repair, well exacted recovery plans and pragmatic, strongly enforced Standard Operating Procedures during the heat of the day, made a real difference.
In camp Bagnold, the periodic maintenance, mandatory inspections, diagnostic checks, and complex repairs we had to conduct as routine kept us busy those first few months. Concurrent to day-to-day business, we were set engineering projects by the OC to enhance the effec- tiveness and efficiency of HMTV through potential modifications. Sgt McQueen and SSgt Entwistle before him worked extremely hard to develop additional vehicle Lifting and Recovery Policy for COYOTE which was used to amend Self and Peer Recovery Standard Operating Instructions while deployed. We have also completed several reports for HMTV PT to modify the vehicle in the future. An Engine Oil Feed Inspection modification recommendation has been delivered and a Tyre Removal Frame submission have both been tendered. Six months on, we are yet to hear back.
From a personal perspective, being a Fitter Section Commander on operations and having the privilege