British troops from the 3rd Battalion, The Rifles have joined Finland’s Kainuu Brigade for Exercise Northern Star, training around 43 miles from the Russian border as the British Army puts its new drone-centric infantry concept through its paces in the Nordic forests, the British Army has said.
The exercise follows the winter Exercise Northern Axe and has drawn in around 4,500 soldiers from NATO countries, including France, Hungary and the United States. For the British battalion, it offers a chance to build closer ties with Finland, which joined the alliance in 2023, and to familiarise its personnel with the Nordic landscape of vast forests and thousands of lakes.
The commanding officer of 3 Rifles, Lieutenant Colonel Tom Redon, said the location was strategically important for NATO and gave his soldiers the chance to develop their tactics in challenging conditions. “The Finns are serious about defence, and learning from each other we can work better together,” he said. What the battalion was working towards, he added, was to “increase our lethality to kill the enemy further away and quicker.”
The exercise is as much about technology as traditional infantry skills as 3 Rifles forms part of 11th Brigade, one of the British Army’s drone-equipped formations specialising in uncrewed aerial systems at low and mid-level altitudes, and has recently been re-designated as one of the new Near Surface Infantry Battalions, a concept built around pairing soldiers on the ground with sensors and strike drones overhead. Northern Star has given the battalion a platform to use those sensors and effectors at range, controlled from a remote command post.
Two systems sit at the heart of the approach, say the Army. The first, called Ghost, is an autonomous uncrewed aircraft resembling a small helicopter, designed for medium-range reconnaissance and surveillance and feeding real-time intelligence and target detection back to the command post. Once a target is identified, that information is passed to the second system, Bolt, a single-use one-way effector carrying onboard munitions that speeds to its target and destroys both the target and itself, the same first-person-view attack profile that has come to dominate the battlefield in Ukraine.
The exercise conducting officer, Major Steve Watts, said the pairing changed what a small unit could do. “With ‘Ghost’ and ‘Bolt,’ you can make a decision faster and you can kill things further away,” he said, which increased both lethality and survivability “because you haven’t got to be there to kill something, you can send a sensor forward, and that’s really critical as we look to the future.”
The soldiers were also equipped with the Android Tactical Assault Kit, known as ATAK or the TAC system, a GPS-enabled device that lets troops see each other’s positions, what is happening around them and where the enemy is. Watts described a lattice network tying everything together, so that troops on the ground wearing a TAC on their chest can see what the drone sees. “It can give instant situational awareness,” he said, “and that’s all key, because once you join together like that, you can pass information, and therefore you can become more lethal.”
God, another rebranding “Near Surface Infantry Battalion.”
“Off surface” is next, no doubt!
Not long since they’d gone over to Light Recc Strike, which sounded better!
An interesting article, though, like the sound of Bolt especially.
Heard of Ghost used by the RM, but not 11 Bde?
11 Bde is one of the formations that has been top of my study/find out more about list for some time, along with the DRSBs.
Establishment? Thought to be less than other Battalions.
Vehicles? CAVS? DAGOR? Other?
Support Company makeup? Is there one in the traditional sense, or are assets seeded in the Rifle Companies?
81mm, GPMG, Sniper, Javelin Platoons?
Or Drone, OWE ?
The Army especially seems to be giving out so little info that was once commonplace.
So Anduril, who produce Ghost, also produce the Bolt M, described as a loitering munition rather than a OWE?
Hope to see tens of thousands of these bought.
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Much better than the roles they were given – ie training teams like spec inf before they became Rangers. They’ve lost support weapons. In a way, this is probably the future.
Hi Bob.
Thanks.
I knew the SFAB Battalions had lost their heavier weapons and some amount of manpower, but assumed they’d got at least some back with the return to a combat role. Disappointing.
Logically, for me at least, an infantry unit in combat might need the GPMGs, or mortars, or something longer legged than an NLAW.
Alongside the newer Drone stuff.
By my understanding, they work as a screen embedded with friendly forces, surely you cannot rely on those alone to provide more conventional firepower?
Seems to me short sighted or simply no people to rebuild those companies and man the kit.
After typing, regards GPMG and FS Company, I’d recalled that they are also widely issued one to a section for increased section firepower? The longer video on Army website shows one Rifleman with a Gimpy, so assume this remains the case with 11 Bde Battalions.
Yeah they have light role GPMG and sharp shooters. They won’t have the SF GPMG and snipers … or mortars etc.
I’d be very surprised if NLAW isn’t carried as that was always a Rifle Coy weapon.
Thanks, assume Sharpshooters as in L129A1s.
Their restructure was published a while back, they looked a lot more support weapon heavy in the new orbat. 1 Rifle Coy for protection and two supporting coys iirc. I found the info months ago but my memory is cloudy and I can’t find it again.
Anyway I suspect it’s now something like a traditional rifle sub unit for CP, a drone team and a support coy including recce platoon and some sort of mortars plt (even if they don’t have tubes operationally I suspect they have MFCs for their role).
Found it, I think.
1 RA exercise at Otturburn.
A Coy is the only typical Rifle Company.
There is no conventional FS Coy, as Bob indicated, but according to this they remain, possibly fewer, and spread out.
B Coy has 2 AT Pl and 1 Ass Pio Pl.
C Coy is the recc element, and has the Snipers.
D Coy is termed “manoeuvre Support” and has 2 Mortar Pl and 2 MG Pl.
Then HQ Coy which I assume has the standard makeup.
If current, interesting. Assume the Drones, and it’s stated the Bde are Drone heavy, are spilt amongst all rather than concentrated in a “Drone Company.”
No mention of transport.
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Hi Daniele, I have to admit Light Recce Strike has more of a ring to it! Putting ‘Near’ in any title sounds to me like it hasn’t quite made it, but tried very hard anyway. Which is maybe what they mean…
I too was interested, after reading about last years’ test of the very basic version of this. Will be interesting to see if they provide any further details. My only concern is that they seem to be only operating two types of drone- whereas a comparable Ukrainian battalion could well have a real variety to suit conditions and range.
I note that 11 Bde and 3 Rifles are mentioned as ‘one of’ a number of units designated to do this role- I don’t remember any announcements about these or other designations before now. Another example of the British Army being far more opaque than they really need to be.
As far as Bolt-M goes, interesting that it it has autonomous flying capabilities, so the ‘pilot’ can focus on finding the right target and getting it- that’s a handy thing to have in an FPV form factor. 20 kms range, but in some ways seems to be reliant on an Anduril mesh network for some features- not sure how susceptible that is to EW. Still, as you say, worth picking up in numbers. The report last year mentioned a drone with 150 km range though, not sure what happened to that. Maybe that’s considered a brigade-level (or higher) capability, so 3 Rifles wouldn’t have been playing with it?
I’d assume so, yes. But overall, not sure on any of this mate, there is such a lack of info available on all this.
On Light Recc Strike, I used the wrong terminology, sorry.
1 R Irish is Light Recc Strike. I have the 11 Bde Battalions as “Tactical Recc Strike.”
What the differences are, I don’t know.
Light Recce Strike is effectively a Recce element for 16AA based on an infantry Battalion in WIMIK instead of Csv in Jackal. TRS is a supporting battalion designed to augment local TDF forces
Thanks.
Irish Guards. 1 Anglians. 3 Scots. 3 Rifles. 4 PWRR.
150km range is not going to be a battalion asset, no battalion commander is worrying about fighting something that deep.
Also “Near” (see also “close”) and “Deep” are fairly standard doctrinal terms. Hence DSRBs.
Interesting that the US is still doing land warfare exercises in Europe. Perhaps the commentaters that maintain that the US is leaving NATO and has no interest in European security were wrong?
I’ve always believed those comments have a lot to do with the desire of the poster, they want to US to go.
And I’ve also stated I’d better money their intell sites stay in place.
The US cannot have it both ways.
So if they go, bases and access go with you. Which is why they won’t.
No they were maybe partially wrong. Looks like the US is going to withdraw 25% of units in the coming years. Theres a list that they are withdrawing from the NATO pool and expect Europe to provide instead. Saw an article on Defence News recently.
Luke, I had not heard of the term ‘NATO pool’ before – seems like it is a US term describing what they assign to NATO. I would be interested to see that list as Americans claim that they deliver 70/80/90 per cent of NATOs capability and I have often rather doubted that.
Graham.
Yes article is on Defense News now. Its the assets that are assigned to NATO is each theatre.
The last defence budget that was passed by congress ( despite what Trump says, he does have to get the budget passed ) included extra spending for NATO. Despite all the shouting there are a number of people on both sides of the house that value NATO
Did the SMASH Smart Weapon Sight Fire Control System come into service then?
yes
Question for the knowledgeable.
Mortars. Mostly taken over by drone use for ceasing enemy troops? A lesser amount of mortars verses increased amount of drones…a good idea?
Time for a guided mortar round…like a ” heavy drone”..sort of tube launched glide drone?
AA
Preferencing this with while I have fired mortars, and called fires in a couple times, and have done a little bit of drone flying, I am not a mortarman, gunner, mfc or drone operator.
But fwiw: i don’t think mortars are going away any time soon. They are more immediately reactive than drones, munitions are cheaper, and it’s easier to swap natures (you want smoke or illum instead of HE just fire the other shell, drones you either pre plan or send a new drone out).
The big question for me is how do you protect base plates. But i think drones + mortars gives really good synergy and I can see Mortar Platoons becoming Drone+Mortars, with at least some assets colocated physically.
For your last comment that is basically switchblade, just fired from a disposable tube, not a mortar barrel.
Baseplates, as in, from Drones once they’re bedded in? I don’t see how you can, efficiently, without placing it on an armoured vehicle so the crew and mortar are within.
On that, any real liklihood 120mm becomes a thing for us? I’d read we were interested and seen suggestions from Boxer to CAVs as the carrier.
On the Mortar Platoons 81s, I dunno, some sort of cage that retracts for use? I see on X these cages are becoming more popular in Ukraine.
Or age old efficient camouflage?
Great idea. Wind the Russians up more. After all, the UK is really financially able to pay for its military forces, isn’t it?
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