Over 800 British, French and Danish troops have conducted Exercise Dragon Charge on the Tapa Central Training Area in Estonia to reaffirm their interoperability and agility, say the British Army.
It was the final, major, force-on-force exercise for the Royal Welsh-led Battlegroup, who come to the end of their six-month tour in Estonia serving as NATO’s enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) on Europe’s eastern flank.
According to a news release:
“The training activity was an opportunity to confirm the interoperability of the UK-led eFP, strengthening the integration capability of international allies, the British Army’s 1st Battalion the Royal Welsh, the French company Les Loups and the Danish Viking company. It was also a chance to ensure cohesion with the recently deployed and additional British Battlegroup to Estonia, the Agile Task Force, 2 Rifles Battlegroup.
The exercise involved main battle tanks, armoured fighting vehicles, light infantry, anti-tank assets and engineering capabilities working together to complete a series of challenging missions. In line with the main effort of Operation Mobilise, ordered by the British Army’s Chief of the General Staff (CGS), this exercise proved that the UK is ‘mobilising the Army to help prevent war in Europe by being ready to fight and win alongside our NATO allies and partners’.
Dragon Charge allowed the Royal Welsh Battlegroup a final occasion to put into practice a total of ten months’ worth of overseas training; time in which their tactics, techniques and procedures have been finely honed through the many individual unit exercises, cross-exposure to their peers, and cultural engagement activity which enriches the human component of interoperability.”
Commanding Officer Lieutenant Colonel Edward Willcox was quoted as saying:
“It was an important week to bring our partners together under the leadership of the Royal Welsh, one final time as the enhanced Forward Presence, to level-up the already extensive training that has taken place during this tour. Nothing can replace the experience of operating alongside one another; it both demonstrates the capability of the eFP and creates bonds between teams, units and nations that will last long into the future.”
You can read more here.
Wow that 6 months went fast. Is some other British service people replacing them? Must be getting close to a lot of the forward deployed units in Europe getting near the 6 months time. I wonder if they will all be rotated or if the eastern deployments will be scaled down.
In other news I saw on sky news that HMs queen Elizabeth will sail to America instead of price of wales
Thanks MS. The QE deployment demonstrates the flexibility two carriers give us. Fortunate, though, that it was available and not undergoing some sort of docking.
UK is the lead supporting nation in Estonia so of course other British personnel replace them. It is not clear to me if the 2RIFLES BG is replacing the Royal Welsh BG or simply augmented them just for this exercise – I suspect the former.
The Russian threat is still there, so I guess all eFP units will be replaced by rotation rather than eFP being scaled down.
Aha. I had asked if that was possible, and am pleased that we have two carriers to allow us to maintain our commitments regardless.
You would hope we would have enough forces to sustain this level of force so close to home. It’s not like we have a division parked out there or any more commitments in Central Asia.
OT: If I am reading the runes right, it looks like the Oz AUKUS sub is not going to be Astute or Virginia/Ohio, but a new or hybrid design, drawing on the experience of all three nations – this could get interesting.
Probably the best solution. If they can get the reactor, machine compartment shipped ready made to plug in to rest of the hull that is made in oz that would be the easier way to do it in my eyes. I’m still hopeful that the requirements for the boat is similar to RN requirements and with that intent the 2 countries jointly design most of the boats allowing different combat systems etc to be fitted as needed. This would require the Royal Navy to speed up development of the astute requirement. I’d even give oz an astute to play with… Read more »
Think you are right I think the Aussies really like the Astute and probably see it as being closer to what they need/ can handle than the Virginias esp the block 4 (is that the latest?) which is big very capable but I suspect they would really like something very good at focused capabilities especially defending against an enemy strike force and the Astute being a very focused sub is probably the best at what it does around I suspect impresses them. Add anti ship capable Tomahawks or similar, as surely will be available later and it’s size, speed and… Read more »
I’m not sure a fully joint designed boat between the 3 countries is the best idea. Will the uk be giving up its ability to design and build full boats? Same with the USA. The details would have to be beneficial for all countries in some way.
The block 4 and future block 5 Virginia boats are long, big subs expensive and with a lot of cruise missiles. Great if that’s what is needed.
I can’t wait for the announcement to see what Australia have come up with.
MS agree an Australian nuclear boat is hard to deliver.
I particularly hope it’s not UK/AUS farming out work to the States, as seems to be happening for the joint Colombia/Dreadnought module.
Well it makes sense considering they’re American missiles
A healthy chunk of the CMC work is being done in the UK. Look up some of the articles on missile tube assemblies.
I don’t think a joint development is a great idea either.
F35B software and inability to mount own weapons anyone?
As a country we have put a massive effort into regenerating surface and submarine design and construction. Why are we risking bits of that fading away just as we are increasing defence spending to realistic levels?
Honestly I think 3% of GDP is a bit too high. I can see 2.5 -> 2.75% as realistic and affordable but what is cut or taxed to find the extra money. Can it be spent well?
The obvious thing to tax consistently is housing. We have a dis-functional market with 10s of bns spend on tax loopholes which inflate house prices, at a time when the main complaint is that prices are too high for FTBs. So I’d say close the loopholes plus replace Council Tax with a set of proposals known as Proportional Property Tax, which also include the abolition of Stamp Duty. That won’t be enough for everything that, but it will help – and will modestly move us towards levelling-up. Good political move with the voters for La Truss too, but the establishment… Read more »
Dysfunctional is the right word. The trick facing our PM is to encourage investment while avoiding the howls of “unfair!”. There is a plan to lift the cap on banker bonuses to encourage more financial services to the UK. There are already grumblings of favouritism for Fat Cats but the the blunt truth is that financial services earn the UK a great deal of money. How do we pay for the services we expect otherwise?
Well, it was GE who helped design and build Astute… so, the Australians joining as junior partners shouldn’t be too hard, it the British take the Lead role.
The UK has essentially never had that capability and sure as hell does not now. There is a reason electric boat had to come over and save the UK’s ass when the astute project fell on its ass and had to be restarted. My God… This is all general information. The astute is 23 years old there has never been a more glacial process to build submarines or any sort of surface ship in world history.
I hope someone reminds the driver to turn the lights off before sneaking around with all that cammo on…
A lovely little thing, the Scimitar. A well thought out platform with various handy reiterations. The logic of a replacement vehicle twice the size and ten times the weight (exaggerating for effect) sometimes escapes me..sorry, did I mention 100 times the price?(not exaggerating for effect)
AA
Turn out the lights? There are three lighting guys and a director on the other side of that lens…… “No guys, do it again. Number four is looking sweaty. Make-up!”
Sorry mate that’s a Warrior 😄
Hi AA, got agree with Jacko, looks like a Warrior to me. Drivers hatch swivels to the side on CVRT, not up and down. As for the ‘A’ word, I think you have to factor in the order of magnitude better crew protection and ISTAR capabilities (no exaggerating for effect).
Cheers
You are right, I may have exaggerated the size of the beast and it is a warrior, which is still very nice….
AA 🤭
A warrior that lost an argument with a bush
A replacement for a 50-year-old recce vehicle (Scimitar) is required, but I agree that Ajax is the wrong vehicle in so many ways, and I think you have listed all of them!
Also need an upgrade for the mid-80s Warrior pictured – WCSP would have been fine notwithstanding the project had run beyond budget and ISD. It will cost an awful lot more to replace it with Boxer and it is unlikely that the section carriers will all (or indeed, any) have a 40mm cannon – and may not have sufficient mobility to keep up with CR3.
So much needing done with the army tracked vehicles. I heard that warrior was going to be a pig to upgrade due to being basically custom made in batches so every vehicle can be different by a few mm here and there. While there’s nothing wrong with that if your upgrade plan is to make new bits to mm precision all the same that is not going to fit in each vehicle without a bit of effort on each vehicle. Also will the vehicles hull change a bit over time individually? A 30mm stabilised cannon replacement would do and keep… Read more »
FRES! I’d read on TD a billion plus was spent on that alone.
We have a lighter recon vehicle, Jackal!
Yes lets just make the fleet simple, another 500 boxer with 40mm gun and brimstone, fast response with punch then ch3 for heavy. Lets get away from 30 different platforms. People seem stuck on warrior which was great in its day but throwing more cash at an unviable upgrade seems as silly as ajax!!!
No ISTAR toys on a Jackal Daniele!
Ahhh, at least a hand held pair of binos? Or two?
😆
Correct, Mk1 eyeball👁👀
Daniele, from the FRES article in army technology.com:
‘In July 2010, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) awarded a £500m ($780m) contract to develop seven prototypes of the ASCOD SV – three Scout, repair and recovery versions and an infantry carrier variant – for the demonstration phase.
Graham, that’s only 6 prototypes? I think the 7th was the C2 variant
Good point. That £500m accounts for half of the £1bn that Daniele mentioned.
It makes you wonder with modern measurement systems, could they have been profiled and grouped so sets of parts could have been made?
Thanks MS. Warrior would have been made in batches but I would be surprised if different jigs were used for each new batch unless the previous jig had worn. I certainly had not heard that there were minor variations in dimensions. The WCSP programme was somewhat over budget and delayed and I am not sure of all the reasons other than ‘lack of grip’ but I think there were still some problems integrating the 40mm with the new turret. I think it was worth persevering with – the faults were not of Ajax-like significance – and the corollorary is that… Read more »
Why not the jig thing is exactly one of the problems with the spanish made ajax units I believe
In some cases the lack of use of jigs by GD Spain has been the problem, allegedly.
Why? they have put every weapon up to 155mm on boxer so I think fitting our new canons and maybe brimstone to some should be quiet easy
Yes merely pointing out if it can take 155mm arty gun it can take 40mm
Well done everyone.
Maintaining an all-arms combat-ready battlegroup in Estonia long-term will be a substantial strain on the British Army. A decision by Tress and Wallace to at least partially roll back the latest cuts to the size of the Army looks military sound, and will politically be very popular among Conservatives.
Its very sad to think that deploying a mere BG would pose a substantial strain on the British Army – perhaps Richard you exaggerate. We need 5 BGs (that can be Task Org’d to suit the remit) in the Orbat to do roulemont and keep to the Harmony inter-tour interval of 2.5 years – we have that, but of course there are other commitments for the field army.
It’s 800 troops… And it takes three countries to do it. Good God….