Page 22 - Bugle Autumn 2024

3 RIFLES
SNIPER OPERATOR CADRE
As of writing we are seven weeks into our nine week Sniper Cadre. In May, 9 students started the course, seven from 3 RIFLES and two from 4 RANGER. The course is designed around the 7 sniper skills: marksmanship, navigation, camouflage, and concealment, judging distance, observation, stalking, and sniper knowledge.
Our team of instructors have been busy creating stands and teaching lessons
to prepare students for their summative
assessments in the final week of the course, also known as ‘badge week.’ Ultimately, the skills taught are designed to develop the students’ ability to conduct the sniper role on operations. For example, in an observation stand, students have 20 minutes to create a sketch, and 40 minutes to use their optics to find 10 military items (from as small as a wire rifle cleaning brush) that have been placed in the ground anywhere from 3m to 250m away. This translates to the level of concentration
the skills taught are designed to develop the students’ ability to conduct the sniper role on operations
required when locating enemy positions from an observation post, a typical sniper task. The first four weeks solely focussed on
marksmanship, culminating with the Sniper ACMT- the first ‘badging’ test. 6 of 9 students passed, setting them up for success, but highlighting the difficulty of the test. The remainder can still pass the course on deferral, provided they pass all the upcoming skills stands, and pass an ACMT within 6 months of completing the course.
3 RIFLES’ Security Force Assistance role
is built around our specialist capabilities, thus training new snipers is critical for future deployments and tasks. With more badged snipers in the Platoon, and some continuation training planned later this summer, conditions will be set for future partnerships.
Lt Smith, Sniper Platoon, C Company
LEARNING RECONNAISSANCE
3 RIFLES Recce Cadre formed up in May and deployed to Barry Buddon Training Camp to begin the five-week course. Phase 1 focused on navigation, fitness, and reconnaissance conceptual development, the emphasis being
on the professionalism required of reconnaissance soldiers.
The cadre then travelled to Otterburn Training Area (OTA) for phase 2, the dry training phase. Over two weeks and two exercises, the training serials consisted of individual day and night NAVEX’s, patrolling, contact drills, OP construction, resupply
and CTR’s. The exercise phase culminated in a six-day FTX, the highlight being a night raid onto an enemy objective followed
by a four-mile CASEVAC. The final week saw the remaining students deploy on an LFTT package that progressed up to patrol extraction drills by night. On the last day of the course six of the initial 16 students were informed that they had successfully passed the course and were now qualified Light Recce Patrolmen, earning the right to serve in 3 RIFLES’ Reconnaissance Platoon.
Capt Stevenson
Recce Platoon, C Company
22 RIFLES The Bugle