Army

4 RIFLES: Ready To Deploy Anytime, Anywhere

As the Mastiffs screech in to position outside the village, the scene is reminiscent of Afghanistan. Today the soldiers are on Salisbury Plain and the village is Copehill Down, an urban training environment. 4th Battalion The Rifles (4 RIFLES) Battlegroup is undergoing intense training to ensure it’s ready to deploy anytime, anywhere as it takes on its new High Readiness function at the start of next month. The Rifleman have a new weapon in their arsenal. They are changing from a Light Infantry role to a Mechanised one, so they are using vehicles which have seen action in Afghanistan and Iraq for the first time.

Mastiff is a heavily armoured, six-wheel-drive patrol vehicle

The heavily protected Mastiffs help them get in closer and faster to their target, but the noisy vehicles also alert the enemy that they are coming. They’ve barely stopped when the doors fly open and the soldiers pile out on foot, running for cover. The next stage is more familiar to them as they move in small sections to clear buildings and seek out and kill the enemy within.

This enemy is played by 4th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland (4 SCOTS) and they are using the TES (Tactical Engagement Simulation), which uses laser transmitters to record casualties taken. There are only a few.

Recent events in Paris have brought home the threat levels to all the soldiers, and the reality of their new High Readiness stance, but it’s also helping them focus.

Lt Joshua Myers is a Platoon Commander, he says:

“Guys just really want to be involved and do what they can to help out whoever it might be, whether that’s internationally or on UK soil as well. They just want to be deployed and used to the capabilities they have available to them”.

In the future, these soldiers could form part of the Government’s planned ‘strike brigades’, announced in last week’s SDSR, to fight terrorism.

Corporal Adam Vaughan from R Company says:

“I suppose it has pros and cons, bringing the vehicles in we can get a lot closer so that we have that added protection from the Mastiffs. However, the downside is the Mastiff is such a large target, so we don’t want to bring the Mastiffs in too close in the urban environment or leave them too static, so it is finding that happy medium”.

This is unchartered territory for the Riflemen and the exercise is creating a new doctrine in how to operate for the future. They are learning lessons from comrades in the Fusiliers and Royal Tank Regiment as they must learn to deploy as a Combined Armoured Force. This exercise was more than six months in the planning, but by the time the soldiers head back to camp they must be competent and capable to deploy anywhere, anytime at just a moment’s notice.