Page 14 - The Bugle 2018

Low level skills in WARRIOR phase on Ex AS
Owning the night
Command group in the mix
Forcing compound entry
B Coy on Ex ASKARI STORM 1/18
SEMI-CLAD RIFLEMEN WERE FOUND HIDING UNDER EVERY SCRAP OF SHADE
In January 2018, 1 RIFLES deployed on Ex ASKARI STORM 1/18, the BG exercise to confirm collective competence ahead of assuming the NATO VJTF(L) spearhead BG role. The exercise itself was divided into 4 phases: Ex ASKARI WARRIOR, CENTURION, MARAUDER and SPARTAN. Due to restrictions on the training areas, the exercise was based entirely at Archer’s Post training area, an arid, hot and largely flat terrain, interspersed by wadis and large, sheer rock features protruding from the plain.
B Coy’s training for the exercise had been compressed due to the late notice of Ex ASKARI STORM taking place in January, but we had concen- trated on refining low level skills and drills, navigation and live-fire progression. This theme continued during Ex WARRIOR, a Coy-led training package in the south of the training area. The Coy range team saw the best of the wildlife, Cpl Harriman claimed not to have seen the large bull elephant ‘hiding behind the tree’ until it was next to him whilst setting up the targets. The heat was initially challenging; semi-clad Riflemen were found hiding under every scrap of shade while they acclimatised. This phase also had intense Platoon day and night ranges, which ran through a wide valley on the high ground, in a magnificent setting. 6 Pl led by Sjt Oliver and Cpl Tippett performed particularly well, integrating their Support Coy attachments into the attacks to provide direct fire support and intelligence.
Next came the Coy rotation, Ex CENTURION; first for B Coy was the defence of ‘God’s bridge’, a rock outcrop that bridges a large wadi. The Platoons relished the mental challenge and combative nature of the force-on-force exercise against a live, thinking enemy. In the first phase the ambushes failed to find the enemy in the dark and complex terrain, but they were picked up by the reconnaissance group, led by Sjt Kitts (recce) and Cpl Stratton-Lee (snipers) screening ahead of the Company. Eventually the enemy main body was identified and mown down in the killing area by Cpl Duffy’s MG section including A/ Rfn (Capt) Leccia, who scrambled into pre-marked positions on call.
The live-firing day and night Company attacks were the highlights of the whole exercise. The Company attacks all had a layered fire-plan in support, provided by 105mm Lt Guns on infiltration, 81mm Mortar, then Machine Gun Pl and snipers providing intimate fire-support during the break-in, whilst the Platoons cleared the compounds with grenades and swords fixed.
Finally, the ‘enabling lane’, a series of obstacle crossings with vehicles against a determined and persistent enemy, which became an endurance event with little rest. Our attachments from 69 Gurkha Field Sqn put in the Infantry assault bridge so fast on one objective, literally in a heartbeat, that the bridgehead force managed to scrabble over and
20 FIRST BATTALION
THE RIFLES