British Army EOD troops train for urban combat

British Army explosive ordnance disposal specialists have conducted urban warfare training at Catterick Garrison, practising building clearance, live tactical movement and close cooperation between specialist teams, the UK Defence Journal understands.

Personnel from 521 EOD Squadron, part of 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Search Regiment Royal Logistic Corps, carried out a series of training serials intended to maintain core soldiering skills alongside their specialist bomb disposal and search responsibilities.

According to a British Army news update, the exercise included blank firing, building clearance and platoon-level urban tactics designed to prepare personnel for operations in built-up areas.

The activity formed part of a Squadron-level Individual Training Requirement exercise and brought together personnel with different specialist roles to test individual competence, team integration and command and control.

Major Matthew Coleman, Officer Commanding, said, as quoted in a news update: “Today is bringing us back to basics from our normal day job.”

He added: “Today is hugely important, the junior and senior members of the team are all working together and preparing themselves for what they would need to do in a real-life urban warfare situation.”

Although the regiment is principally associated with explosive ordnance disposal and specialist search operations, its personnel must also retain the ability to operate as soldiers in environments where their technical tasks may be carried out alongside conventional combat activity.

11 EOD and Search Regiment has around 650 personnel drawn from several branches of the Army. Its workforce includes Royal Logistic Corps ammunition technicians, Royal Signals specialists, Royal Engineers search teams and intelligence personnel. The Catterick exercise required those different elements to operate together under time pressure while practising the procedures needed to move through and secure urban terrain.

For Lance Corporal James Tunstall, an Electronic Warfare and Signals Intelligence systems operator, the exercise also provided experience in instructing other members of the unit.

“Today is about training the troop in urban tactics, making sure we’re all fully trained and everyone has an awareness of what urban training is,” he said, as quoted in the news update. Tunstall, who had recently qualified as an instructor, said teaching the drills presented a different challenge from carrying them out himself.

“Learning it is very different to teaching it… personally instructing is a lot more difficult,” he said. He added: “Today has given me the knowledge that I need to learn the drills better in order to know how to instruct them better.”

The training also placed personnel in positions requiring them to work closely with colleagues across different specialisms. Tunstall said: “It benefits the whole team to try and work together in close proximity, it’s definitely beneficial to the whole team and individually too.”