Royal Navy Reservists Preparing For All Possibilities

A hundred Royal Naval Reservists are in Cyprus taking part in an exercise designed to prepare them for possible operations.

Exercise Helios Encounter covers all the skills they will need to provide force protection to a ship anywhere in the world.

It is an imaginary scenario, but one sailor could one day face for real.

One job for the naval reservists is learning how to clear a ship, compartment by compartment.

The sailors must go from room to room, and deal with every potential threat.

LS Buster Brown, HMS Sherwood, says:

"People don't expect the Royal Navy to be doing such things, but a vessel is our floating home and we want to protect it from whoever may want to harm us or the vessel itself."

These reserves are members of the War Sea branch of the Royal Naval Reserves.

As well as maritime knowledge, their job means they also have to hone their soldiering skills in order to protect their ship.

Part of that is handling a weapon, with the heat of the Dhekelia shooting range testing the reserves while they try to hit the target.

Another focus of the two-week exercise is first aid, and the ability to calmly deal with a casualty while on board a ship.

Naval nurse PO Sean Carruthers says:

"Being on board a ship there are some compartments in there where you might get someone who is working alone.

"They may have a heart attack, or some sort of injury, may fall from a height in the engine space, for instance."

Currently, the Royal Navy Reserve has a trained strength of 2,588 sailors, with a further 988 in training.

By 2020, the government says it would like to enlarge the maritime reserve to 4,150, with naval reservists taking on a bigger role, particularly in patrolling the UK's coastline.