British Army ‘teaching Ukrainians to survive and be lethal’

A post recently published on the ‘Voices of the Armed Forces‘ blog featured Lieutenant Jones, a platoon commander from Trident Company, discussing his role in Operation Interflex.

Trident Company is a unique company of British Army Reservists who have volunteered to train Ukrainians as part of the operation.

Reflecting on the opportunity to train Ukrainian soldiers, Lieutenant Jones says, “This task is something that the Reserves are built for. When this came up, I jumped at it basically. Mainly because of having some sort of real-world impact with the war in Ukraine; to actually go in and train people who are going off to fight in a war… to meet these people and teach them to survive and be lethal in a 21st-century battle space was a massive opportunity to get involved with.”

Detailing his role in the operation, Lieutenant Jones notes, “As platoon commander, I’m mainly dealing with the management of the platoon of the training team. So, my job is making sure that the training meets the training objectives and the outputs delivered and that people know where they’re going, what they’re doing.”

Trident Company stands out as it’s the first full company of Army Reservists to deliver training via Operation Interflex. When discussing how Trident Company’s training differs from the Regular Army’s, Lieutenant Jones explains, “I don’t think there is any difference between what we can deliver and the Regulars per se. However, I’d say when we first met the Ukrainians… we all volunteered for this. We weren’t told that we were doing this; similar to how all the Ukrainians volunteered for this themselves. So, we’ve got a bit of a mutual respect, I think, for each other in that way.”

Jones also acknowledges the diverse backgrounds of his platoon members, saying, “We’ve got IT people, farmers we’ve got all sorts of, every kind of background in the platoon. We can relate to them.”

Describing the operation as “the best thing I have done as a Reservist,” Jones talks about the impact of their training, “We are getting to meet loads of different people and we are having a genuine impact on them. For example, we are teaching them how to use a tourniquet and then they will apply that knowledge when they are dealing with a wound in real life. We are teaching them how to conduct fire and movement which is going to save their lives at the end of the day.”

You can read more here.