A MAJOR military exercise involving hundreds of troops and armoured vehicles on Salisbury Plain came to an end on Thursday with a mock battle against enemies in Soviet-style uniform and weaponry.

The Combined Arms Demonstration, conducted at Sack Hill, Warminster, was undertaken by the 12th Armoured Infantry Brigade, 3rd (UK) Division’s current brigade held ‘at readiness’.

As an audience of more than 350 watched the demonstration, they were informed that the enemy forces had ‘Soviet style weaponry’ and later on during the exercise enemy troops appeared in Soviet style uniform.

When asked to comment about the mention of Soviet weaponry and whether it was linked with heightened tensions with Russia, an Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “This was mentioned because Soviet area weaponry is the sort of conventional type of arms that have fallen into the hands of most enemy forces, that’s the only reason.”

The demonstration was an end to three-week Exercise Tractable, which saw the movement of around 1,800 personnel and approximately 730 vehicles.

During the exercise troops were deployed from barracks across the UK, via a centralised Mounting Centre on Salisbury Plain, to air and sea points of embarkation.

Led by the 1st Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment Battle Group, the exercise last Thursday consisted of a simulated defence, attack and obstacle crossing and was designed to test the ability of 3rd (UK) Division’s Lead Armoured Task Force to deploy on potential future overseas operations.

Major General James Cowan, general officer commanding 3rd (UK) Division, said: “If they were required these would be the men and woman who would be dispatched and act as the spearhead of the forces and so we are practising our deployment of armed tanks and aircraft.

“The purpose of this operation is so they are trained in how to be put out in the areas of operations at short notice.

“It’s a major exercise but it’s not as big as it could be, next year we hope to get an entire brigade involved but it’s still important and we can learn lessons from it.

“I’m hugely impressed by the operation and it’s a real privilege to have overseen it but it is even more of a privilege to have commanded such a great group of soldiers.”

Military top brass from as far as America, Japan and Lithuania were in the audience to watch the demonstration with the majority of soldiers made up of the 1st Armoured Infantry Brigade, who will be taking part in the same operation in a year’s time.

The demonstration ended with a drive-by of all the armoured vehicles, including Challenger II and Warrior tanks as well as two Apache helicopters.

Wiltshire Times:

  • Picture by Trevor Porter