Page 95 - Light Dragoons 2022 CREST

The Regimental Journal of The Light Dragoons
A year at the Combat Ready Training Centre
In early 2021, Maj Alex Thirlaway was dragged kicking and screaming from the comfortable life he had formed down at FTU and hurled back to regiment to be HQ Sqn Ldr. This opened a vacancy for a Lt Cav Officer, and with the cynical under- standing that the Light Dragoons would be validated in February 2022 – I was sent down to be the man on the inside!
In June 2021, the Field Training Unit tran- sitioned into the Combat Ready Training Centre (CRTC). The new unit combined both FTU and BATUS (British Army Training Unit Suffield), and with future plans to integrate BATUK (British Army Training Unit Kenya), the unit will be responsible for all non Mission Ready Collective Training and Validation at a Battlegroup level. The Light team are responsible for validation of Light Cavalry, Light Mechanised Infantry, Air Assault Infantry and increasing numbers of non combat units such as Artillery and Log Bdes.
CRTC is based out of the most depress- ing camp in the British Army, Westdown Camp in Tilshead. Many of you will have had the joys of this camp whilst conduct- ing training on Salisbury Plain. The camp is currently undergoing a multi million pound uplift that will hopefully make it much more comfortable for everyone. The unit consists of around 70 Officers and SNCOs, and is run in an extremely grown up culture, with a good work life balance. Exercise periods are naturally intense with limited sleep as staff either operate a fully networked EXCON, deployed on the ground as Observer Mentors, or complete the question set to give the CRTC Comd the data that can inform whether valida- tion should be awarded. However, when not on exercise there is plenty of opportu- nity for a decent work life balance, adven- ture training (4 trips this year) and an annual battlefield study.
Since arriving last June, we have predomi- nantly been focused on 3 exercises. These included Ex Aires Storm which exercised 1 Arty Bde – the highlight of which was an unnamed gun battery actually putting out fig 11 targets in the stag pits to generate a “simulated stag”. Readers will be shocked to know that the fig 11 targets did not wake the battery when attacked and resulted in the unit’s complete destruction. Ex Iron Viper exercised 101 Log Bde across train- ing areas nationwide and exposed the weakness of the RLC to motorway service stations even if the supplies they were being tasked to deliver were desperately needed elsewhere!
Each exercise is designed in a bespoke manner depending on the priorities set out in the Field Army Training Directive, and
in consultation with what the Bde would like to test. Current core concepts include “Extend the Plain” – using out of area missions to test exercising at reach and the difficulties that causes for Command and Control, Logistics, and protection. “Scenario realistic use of ground” – using SPTA in a realistic fashion – gone are the days of continuously advancing across the plain in different directions and pretend- ing that the enemy has just rearranged themselves to be magically on the other side of the River Avon. There are now very firm settings objects such as the inter- national boundary, and villages such as Imber and Copehill Down will remain in play throughout the period and manned by a civilian role-playing contract worth over £250000 per exercise!
For Ex WS 5/21 which I am sure readers will have enjoyed reading about in other parts of this journal, we spent a great deal of time planning a different sort of exercise. Rather than treating SPTA as convention- ally used with forces moving E-W/W-E, the decision was made to operate S-N. This was designed to cause headaches for BGHQ and Sqn HQs as it is a larger area than would normally be covered by a Light Cav Unit, and would force the LD Battlegroup to make hard decisions on where to take risk, rather than the comfortable 2 Up Screen that can be produced elsewhere on the plain looking E/W. This also enabled the enemy to infiltrate through the gaps in the screen, and they came hunting after BGHQ with a vengeance! It also increased the challenge for exercising troops at all levels as the ground was horrendous (due to classic January/February weather (including two named storm sys-
tems!) and troops were mov- ing over ground that is not normally covered during Crew Commanders). As
a result, I spent every evening on the CALFEX standing on multiple wagons that had flopped
or crashed into ditches.
All excellent learning for young drivers and crew commanders, and no one injured which was the criti- cal concern of the safety staff. The Ex design also created a radical optimisation phase which took LD to 6 differ- ent training areas as they moved through the South West and Wales. One of
the great challenges with designing Light Cavalry Battlegroup Training – is finding activity that forces the BGHQ to control and co-ordi- nate activity between
multiple force elements. It is all too easy to ask LD to recce a series of targets, and for BGHQ to draw Sqn Ops Boxes around each one! As a result, LD were tasked with raiding far more than they or we would have liked. BGHQs response to this was to try and get within the planning time- lines of the exercise and raid the positions before the entire enemy force was placed on the target – a somewhat effective tactic that caused minor flaps in EXCON (“What do you mean they’re attacking now, they’re not supposed to attack for another 13 hours?”) Despite minor irritations and frictions (Maj Henry Freeman having a little snap when the simulated press turned up to interview him while he was attempting to write orders in Four Romeo while C Sqn was under a Sarin Attack), and 6 vehicle flops, the Light Dragoons performed exceedingly well – validating in only 3 missions which is up with the best performing battlegroups.
As for the year ahead, it is already rapidly filling up. At the time of writing CRTC is preparing to deploy to North Macedonia where we will validate 3 Para on Ex Swift Response. A trip to the US to exchange ideas and best practices with our colleagues at JRTC and NTC (the parallel organisa- tions to CRTC) in July, Wessex Storm 3/22 (2 Royal Anglian) in August – Oct followed by preparation for Wessex Storm 5/22 next year. Although I won’t have the vested interest in attempting to look after those units in the same way as I did LD, the benefit will undoubtedly be the dis- tinct lack of phone calls at all hours of the
day and night asking me to fix things that had been decided at the Brigade Command
level!
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