Army Wildcats and Apaches team up with US to play hide and seek with opposing force
Practising for war, British Army Wildcats and Apaches are in Germany where the skills of more than 400 UK troops are being put under the spotlight.
They are being tested to see how well they can integrate with their American counterparts on Exercise Sabre Junction – a highly realistic warfighting training exercise.
After the conflict in Ukraine began in February 2022, the scale of the exercise increased, and now thousands of troops from across Nato are taking part, facing an opposing force in the training area who are getting ready to throw everything at them.
The Joint Multinational Readiness Centre, in Hohenfels, Germany, is the only US Army Combat Training Centre outside the continental US.
Exercise Sabre Junction takes place every two years, this time involving 10 countries, with more than 4,000 troops.
Lieutenant Colonel Dave Lambert, Commanding Officer, 4 Regiment Army Air Corps Battlegroup, explained the numbers involved in terms of the aerial component.
He said: "We've got about 405 personnel here, that comprises about 16 helicopters and over 100 vehicles.
"And then we've got 661 Squadron, Wildcat squadron, with about 100 personnel from Yeovilton, we've got all of the 4 Regiment assets with the headquarters and an Apache squadron with six Apaches.
"We've also got Charlie Company, which is a US Apache company, who've got eight Apaches and about 80 personnel."
For the first time, a US company can fall underneath a battlegroup within the UK.
"I think it's extremely important," said Captain Cody Clinebell, Charlie Company 1-3 Commander from,12th Combat Aviation Brigade.
"We fly the same aircraft. We speak the same language, but yet sometimes we both feel that we need an interpreter just because there are different words that we use.
"There's different common terminology that may be common for a UK soldier compared to a US soldier.
"So finding these friction points now, in a safe environment where we can train and have an enemy to work against, allows us to find those friction points.
"It seems like it would be easy, but we all have different ways of how we work together."
BFBS Forces News went behind the scenes to see the two nations' first big test of working together, with a Wildcat flight setting off on a deep-strike mission with US Army Apaches.
"The Americans have put a lot of money and effort into making these missions as real as possible," said Captain Si Longworth, a squadron qualified helicopter instructor.
He added that it is intended to give everyone involved "the feeling that we are actually at war".
Two Wildcats acting as reconnaissance helicopters set off 40 minutes ahead of the Apaches, and it was their job to send them vital intelligence ahead of the strike.
It is a game of hide and seek with the enemy before the crucial moment arrives and an Apache fires a missile.
The role of the soldiers playing the enemy is to test the visiting troops and help make them better soldiers.
Visiting troops parachute in and they know their performance is going to be under the microscope.
Such exercises provide training for threats that could arise anywhere in Europe and are designed to send a clear message to potential adversaries.
And if that fight did come, troops would be applying the lessons learned in this training exercise and putting their skills to the test for real.
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