Scottish troops from 5th Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland (5 SCOTS) swapped their ceremonial duties for an intense aviation deployment exercise in the snow-covered hills of Garelochhead, according to a British Army news release.
As part of Exercise Argyle Hunter, 50 troops from Balaklava Company were airlifted by RAF Chinooks from Redford Barracks in Edinburgh and dropped into a simulated combat zone, facing ambushes, patrols, and hasty attacks in challenging terrain and extreme conditions.
Captain Elliott Smith, 5 SCOTS, said in the news release that the rare opportunity pushed soldiers to their limits, testing their ability to operate in high-intensity combat scenarios.
“This was a return to core infanteering, undertaking offensive enabling actions, including ambushes, fighting patrols and hasty attacks, up and down hills, across rivers, involving casualties and captured personnel,” Captain Smith explained.
While 5 SCOTS is known for its state and ceremonial duties, the exercise allowed the unit to sharpen its core combat skills, preparing for future operational deployments alongside NATO partners.
The exercise coincided with 28 Squadron RAF’s Exercise Kukri Dawn, a helicopter pilot confirmatory training exercise that involved underslung loads of Army weaponry and resilience operations with Police Scotland.
According to Captain Smith, the integration was a valuable training opportunity:
“We’re a ceremonial company, but we need to take these opportunities where they come up,” he said. “It was by happenchance the Puma squadron were up here conducting their training, and doing this kind of thing is a training objective in itself because conducting aviation moves is part of our core skill set.”
Balaklava Company has been steadily increasing the intensity of its training in preparation for future NATO operations.
Starting with section-level rural and urban drills, the troops progressed to platoon-level defensive operations in Ripon before moving on to shooting drills and trench warfare training in Catterick.
“The end state is we’re going to go on exercise for two weeks under 51 Brigade, which will validate us at company level and set the conditions for us to work with NATO partners,” Captain Smith said in the news update.
Hello UKDJ, Many recent excellent articles are devoid of a Comments section. Just thought I’d mention it just in case you weren’t aware.
I’ve also been troubled by that. Glad to find it wasn’t just my computer at fault.
This past week has been a tad erratic…. most of my attempts to join in discussions have either been held for moderation, deleted entirely or just not even been able to get past the first hurdle of post clicking.
Makes me wonder if they require an expert in all things Cyber security related. There seems to be a lot of it about lately.
All of my posts have been held up for moderation, yet I have posted for many years, am not controversial, and have paid into the UKDJ donations pot.
I think George was upgrading the spam plugin and that broke a few other things.
Do bear in mind some of the ridiculous personation going on here a few weeks back.
Yes, I have seen about a Million new posters posting under some rather dubious names lately….. I was a bit peeved to see that some girl could post spam yet all my comments were deleted……… Still, I now know how to make £25,000 per hour !!!!!
Yes, entire threads full of new names, obviously on Russia Ukraine themed articles.
As I mentioned earlier, the comments plugin crashed.
I know, George told me, because I asked.
The long awaited sequel to Dog Soldiers is here! 🤣
Moving the conversation away from thr comments section I’m a bit like “What’s the point.”
Balaclava Coy is never going to deploy, it’s through and through a ceremonial unit. If blokes need exercising for promotion courses etc, backfill 2, 3 and 4 Scots, or rotate members of the company (as should happen anyway) through the battalions. But they’re practicing Helicopter insertions while formed deployable Infantry battalions are crying out for training experiences with air assets?
I know I’m normally on the explain rather than outrage side but this feels like an officer trying to pad their ojar, not a genuine need.
Have you seen on Twitter the mention of a new Gurkha Regiment?
Good to see them getting C8s