Reconnaissance troops from 1st Deep Recce Strike Brigade deployed on the Brigade’s first overseas training exercise abroad since it was formed in the summer.
104 soldiers from The Royal Yeomanry and 1st the Queen’s Dragoon Guards have been in Gibraltar practising combat and reconnaissance skills in an urban environment.
Gibraltar’s tunnel system was used to challenge the soldiers and test their ability to fight in darkness. Underground training has been a part of military training for many years and with restricted views, narrow choke points and close enemy engagements, it takes time to master. In a press release, the British Army say that a Lance Corporal stripe is on the horizon for 24 of the soldiers who went to Gibraltar as Troopers and, having completed the Army Leadership Development Programme, return to their units ready to be promoted.
“The course was described by some as “the most intense and demanding exercise that they’ve ever had to do in the army”. The Royal Yeomanry and 1st The Queen Dragoon Guards, also known as The Welsh Cavalry, are both reconnaissance regiments, seeking out information about the enemy and the terrain. Together they combine to form the light cavalry reconnaissance component of the new Brigade. The Royal Yeomanry is the largest reserve light cavalry regiment in the Army.
The two-week exercise – Exercise Barbary Star – has been the culmination of months of training aimed at testing the soldiers basic military skills to ready them for any future operations. The soldiers came ashore on landing crafts in a dramatic display and once ashore, they quickly patrolled through the streets of Gibraltar to reach a stealth observation post on the Rock of Gibraltar itself. The soldiers combat skills were then put to the test when they had to fight their way through the urban operations training facility, navigating through the simulated village clearing buildings, rooftops and access points.”
Corporal Searle was quoted as saying:
“Urban operations bring unique challenges not present in other environments. Contact with the enemy can be at very close quarters so the soldiers must be alert and vigilant. For example, roads could be easily used to direct soldiers into a certain area where they could be ambushed. They continually have to evaluate the changing risks as they navigate through the simulated village. In an urban environment the enemy can be in the air, on the ground or beneath their feet. There are a multitude of threats to think about, including drones.”
You can read more here.
Good camouflage. Are we expecting more trouble from Spain I wonder
They have staged Putin’s bunker down there. Rishi playing it cool.
Funny enough for all my travels, its one place I’ve never been to. Know quite a few people who have served there , just not me.
Oh those tunnels bring back font memories. They take an age to get used to. After a posting to Gib where you play in them for a few months (when the ex-squaddie apes are not showing tourists around them that is), you find all sorts of graffiti scrawled by someone’s gr, gr, gr, gr, gr, gr, gr grandfather.
A baptism of fire?
They rested some new night vision equipment, it’s called “Tunnel Vision”.
Alright, believe everyone should be allowed an occasional ignorant question. My current submission: Has the MoD/RN ever given serious consideration to the development of protected berthings for SSNs/SSBNs at Gib? Realize that it would be a significant infrastructure project, but these are the highest value targets to protect. In addition to a cave system to quarter a protection force of RM, there are rhe benefits of the mountain topography and structure. In addition, contemplate the wonders of reinforced concrete and the naval equivalent of blast doors (e.g., NORAD and Cheyenne Mt.). Believe berths could be created that would be invulnerable to anything short of a direct nuke strike. Before you all collapse w/ laughter, remember the submarine pens at Brest…🤔
The presumption, of course, is there would also be an ABM site
Actually, sort of begs the question of the feasibility of a similar scenario at HMNB Clyde. (No problem to spend 3% of GDP, w/out even breaking a sweat. 😅)
Gib is a warren of tunnels, caverns and infrastructure. 35 odd miles of roads and tunnels inside it, fuel farms, water tanks and other “stuff” some dating back till the 1800s. Most of the tunneling was WW2 era stuff dug by Canadian Hard Rock miners but there is more recent works under there as well.
With the location of the Port to the rock it would be a none starter nowadays. There used to be a walk through tunnel from the dockyard to the beaches on the other side of the rock but that closed decades ago due to rockfalls etc. It also went past some stuff that access really needed to be restricted for so they shut it.
If you ever visit Gib the tunnel tour is a given. There is the recent tourist trip that is ok. The best one is to get in with the Military Guides that goes to the other less visited areas…take a torch! And you get to experience the tunnels as soon as you land. The reclaimed land that the airport is built on came from inside the rock.
Chinese have such a location apparently. The costs would be ridiculous, Spain would have a fit, as would the EU, as would the Gibraltarians I suspect.
There is plenty of UG stuff at Gib already, most from WW2 or before, with some Cold War things confirmed and rumoured.
I was 2nd I/C for a period at the Lane, there’s lots that cannot be said about that place so I will talk about what I can at Gib.
Former USAF “Has the MoD/RN ever given serious consideration to the development of protected berthings for SSNs/SSBNs at Gib?” The answer is hmm, yes and sort of. Not all of the caves there are fully open as some stores are located in a crag or two.
Put it simply, we would get told if one of our own or a NATO SSN/SSBN was to come in so we could do our prep (I’m not going into any detail of our prep), then it would be the standard security process in place once they arrived. It may differ subject to the current state of alert on the day, but the best security for them was being out to sea. There’s nothing of note to say about storage in the rock. The Spanish would burst a blood vessel and then some if the RN decided to store any of those weapons there. Any attack would cause all sorts of upgrades to La Linea and we can’t have that.
If you really want to hide something I would go for St Georgia. There’s dozens of entryways you can fit a Minsweeper in out of the weather down there. We spent two weeks exploring the Island and if you can get in during a weather window, you will be able to have a fantastic facility akin to something a Bond villain would be proud of. St Helena is out due to the shallow rocks surrounding the island, leaving Benniville. That place has more little inlets than you can make a stick at, but that’s about it.
The “Lane” Ian?
Faslane SW inner area?
I saw you’d mentioned you were FPG.