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VIDEO: Ready For Anything - 1 LANCS On Exercise Shamal Storm
For the past few weeks more than a thousand British troops have been in Jordan taking part in a large multi-national exercise.
Shamal Storm is designed to test how effectively the UK could deploy a 30,000 strong force anywhere in the world.
More than 1,500 soldiers and 300 vehicles are in the Jordanian desert.
1st Battalion, Duke of Lancaster's Regiment (1 LANCS), are among those taking part in what is the British Army’s biggest armoured exercise for a decade.
Next month they take over the role of Regional Standby Battalion, the exercise presents a chance to test how prepared they really are.
The CO of 1 LANCS, Lt Col George Maund, said.
"This is about readiness, pure and simple. So when we are held at readiness under the regional standby role we need to be prepared to deploy anywhere in the region, as the name suggests, and to deal with any number of contingencies. One of which, and currently highly unlikely... is war fighting.
Home for 1 LANCS during the exercise is a Jordanian military camp called Jebel Batra.
It's 1600 metres above sea level and is surrounded by a huge expanse of empty desert.
1 Lancs have created eight different firing ranges in the area. Each is a different size but all are perfect for live firing everything from machine guns to hand grenades and mortars.
Shamal Storm is a test for the Army’s Vanguard Enabling Group. Their job is to provide the logistics needed to move Britain’s reaction forces into any theatre worldwide.
Jordan borders both Iraq and Syria, but Lt Colonel Maund wasn't interested in speculation the exercise is a rehearsal for something else.
"No, you shouldn't read anything into it. We are, as an army, required to hold forces at readiness and those forces held at readiness need to be prepared to deploy to any possible theatre of operations. This is simply a generic exercise designed to get us ready for whatever may come our way in terms of an operational task."
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