Page 90 - QDG 2023

88 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards
Armoured Trials and Development Unit (ATDU)
The Armoured Trials and Development Unit located at Bovington Garrison in Dorset is here to conduct experimenta- tion and trials in Lethality, Survivability, Communications & Vehicle Systems in order to inform the development of current and future Mounted Close Combat (MCC) capabilities. The Army is replacing or upgrading all of its tracked and wheeled armour over a ten year period which, combined with the rapid advancement in defence capabilities and technologies requiring the move from analogue to digital systems, has resulted in ATDU growing in size and output.
There are currently two of us from the QDG posted here at ATDU, Cpl Young, working with the Trials Troop, who as part of his remit, is focused on the development of Lt Cav capabilities and Maj Rob Mansel, as the OC of the Ajax Reliability Trials Team (ARTT). One of three Cat A programmes currently being delivered ARTT is made up of 63 soldiers and eight analysts from DE&S, who work alongside a team of 30 from General Dynamics UK (GDUK). Due to the fact GD has a strong Ex-QDG element ATDU can resemble a tank park in Sennelager or Catterick with charac- ters like, Rob Jones (beast), Rob Lockyer, Andy Bale and Nick Sterry daily, as well as regular visits from the likes of John Smith, Neil Greaney and Dickie Hudd.
As mentioned, ATDU is currently increasing its footprint to accommodate the other Cat A programs, including the new Infantry Boxer Vehicle and Chal-
A completely mythical beast
lenger Mk III programmes, additionally, working with industry and defence partners developing MCC Capabilities and concepts by investigation and trials of new, novel, or nascent technologies. All with the aim of improving MCC capa- bilities fielded on current operations, optimising MCC for urban operations, modernising MCC through hybridisation and electrification, transform MCC for the advent of robotic and autonomous systems and the digital integration of MCC with other capabilities and plat- forms. ATDU is a busy but very exiting place to be posted.
RCM
Coming to America
Jon Sopel’s book ‘If Only They Didn’t Speak English’ builds on the now perva- sive idea that we and the Americans are two cultures separated by a common language. It was in the spirit of lifting the lid on the military microcosm of this truism that I embarked on two years of command and staff training in Fort Leav- enworth, Kansas.
Coming to America for intermediate staff college is like a ‘buy one get two free’ deal. The unwitting candidate is actually signing up for three distinct elements of professional development. The first is a two-month-long introduc- tion to the United States as a cohort of over 120 international students. The second is a year-long Intermediate staff course called the Command and General Staff Officer’s Course. Finally, and only on selection, a year of more advanced stra- tegic and operational study at the School of Advanced Military Studies.
The first is the obvious favourite. Landing in Kansas as part of an interna- tional cohort of 120 officers
from 90 different countries is
favourite occurred during a counterfac- tual historical planning exercise about dropping the bomb on Japan. In groups of 10 we were to recreate the Truman war cabinet and brief the president on how, where, and why to deploy this new super weapon. Our facili- tator didn’t blink when the Japanese officer drew “Pres- ident Truman” from the hat. Nor was there a command appointment change as our colleague begged, wept, not to be made to order the nuclear annihilation of his
an astounding privilege. The
course material is equally
for the ages, in essence, a
thinly veiled propaganda
exercise that might as well
have started with compul-
sory chanting of U.S.A.
U.S.A. U.S.A.. The program
introduces us to vague
concepts like democracy
and the rule of law in a tone
that is humorous to most but
frankly patronising to some.
By design or not, it perfectly
forges the international
students into a tightly knit
cohort of eye-rollers. The
stories from this course are numerous and almost all hilarious, but a personal
Our facilitator didn’t blink when the Japanese officer drew “President Truman” from the hat
own people.
Hot on the heels of inter-
national induction, we
assimilated into our US syndicates. Now, the 120 international officers (about the same as a UK ICSC