Page 10 - The Royal Lancers Chapka 2017
P. 10

8 REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL LANCERS (QUEEN ELIZABETHS’ OWN)
  Patrolling the border
Overview of the Training Year
2017 saw a direction-change in how the Army looks to employ its reconnaissance forces. The removal of BATUS from the programme offered an opportunity to deviate from the comfort- able and staid path of Salisbury Plain, synthetic exercise, Cas- tlemartin Ranges and the environs of the Prairie itself. That opportunity was seized with both hands and, with help from the wider Lancer family, the Regiment was able to transfer its efforts to some genuinely different, challenging, and enjoyable training.
Exercise MONS LANCER highlighted that our dismounted skills and the way we envisage an enemy needed some closer focus; if we were true to ourselves, our battlefield discipline had also slipped. A petitioner for more “interesting training... like jungle warfare” was reminded that The Royal Lancers are not a holiday operator. Of course, that doesn’t mean that training can’t be fun or rewarding, so how to shake things up? With squadron stability, the standardisation of all four Sabre Squadrons, and improving efficiency as stimuli, and with BATUS unable to pro- vide sufficient equipment or space to train an Armoured Cavalry Battlegroup, we set about to ‘get at’ training recce differently. In doing so, we also happened to take the Field Army with us.
So, Exercise NORTHERN LANCER was born: an ambitious, original exercise over 15,000km2 of various (training) estates in the north of the UK. This exercise sought to develop reconnais- sance skills in a live environment over an extended battlespace. We would have fallen at the first hurdle without the support of the wider Lancer family, but what we finished with was a train- ing event which will long be emblazoned on the minds of all in- volved. The Cheviot Hills, Yorkshire Dales, Stockton-On-Tees town centre, Hadrian’s Wall, RAF Spadeadam, the Meuse Val-
ley and an array of private estates provided the chequered tap- estry of the exercise; a welcome change from the familiarity of Salisbury Plain and the ‘Rattlesnake’. Above us were American, French, and British jets, supported by RAF strategic reconnais- sance aircraft and the Army’s Aviation Reconnaissance Force, adding complexity for troops and headquarters alike.
There were realistic and unexpected frictions; some patrols had to avoid armed and tipsy farmers, inquisitive livestock, protec- tive dogs, friendly ramblers and tourists, all of whom compli- cated ‘Atropia’, the fictitious country in which our exercises are based. By the end of the first day, any member of the Battlegroup could have filled more than a postcard with experiences vastly different to those in ‘normal’ training. Core reconnaissance skills and fieldcraft filled the training and we slowed down the all-too commonly frenetic FTX that seemingly erodes battle- procedure in favour of the tactical action, to re-prioritise on the former. Being the training designer, training audience, training controller and training observers undoubtedly tested the Regi- ment, but ultimately enabled us to dynamically refocus events as we observed deficiencies. The enormity – although familiar to our forebears – stretched our communication skills. 10 years of campaigning on fixed communications infrastructure and small training estates have erroder our HF skills and this presents a key gap we must close with.
Field training experiences were not the only show in town. Her- culean levels of forbearance were displayed on all sides during a simulated training event, focused on the Battlegroup HQ, which sought to show that the whilst the Armoured Infantry may be a large element of our ‘heavy metal’ the training models used


























































































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