9th-12th-Lancers - Year 2002 - Page 0059
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| Regiment | 9th/12th Lancers |
|---|---|
| Year | 2002 |
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REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE 9TH/12TH ROYAL LANCERS (PRINCE OF WALES’S) 57 Protection for CVR(T) and a very smart combat survival waist- coat for the crews. The former will considerably improve the safety of the crew and the diesel engine gives the vehicle the capacity to carry the additional protection. It is a tribute to its excellent original design that it can be upgraded so successfully. Capt Paddy Rhodes was instrumental in the design of the waist- coat which will give all AFV crewmen a close-fitting, snag-free piece of clothing to hold their essentials, including food, ammu- nition and water, as well as the issue body armour. ATDU is a very exciting place in which to work. It is involved in the design of new armoured vehicles and equipment from the earliest stages, and has an unrivalled opportunity to test proto- types and the first production equipments for ongoing trials. It genuinely has the opportunity to make a difference. Best of all, volunteers are always wanted! W T S Combined Arms Tactical Trainer (CATT) For all officers and soldiers who have ever bluffed their way on exercise, such as lying about one’s location, but are no longer employed as turret crews, you can breath a sigh of relief. All young vehicle commanders still involved in the core busi- ness of the Regiment - stand by; strangely I am thinking par- ticularly of Troop Leaders! There are two CATT sites, one in Warminster and one in Sennelager. For those who have visited SIMNET it is a similar concept, just stuff of the 21st Century. Each site has an armoured battlegroup of vehicles: 29 Challenger 2, 29 Warrior, 8 Scimitar and 4 Warrior OPV. Furthermore there are 16 Generic Vehicle Simulators (GVS) which can be adapted to 14 variants including Spartan, Striker, AVLB, CET, Stormer, Apache, Lymx, etc. Twelve Dismount Stations allow troops to command men, fire Milan, man Observation Posts or be Forward Air Controllers, although these generic simulators are a compromise. Battlegroup HQ is linked by ten Command Vehicle boxes, similar to those at CAST. It is likely that Battlegroup’s will train here twice a year, depending on where they are on the Formation Readiness Cycle. The first week will focus on Squadron drills, culminat- ing in a battlegroup ‘shake out’. Months later the battlegroup will return and prepare at Squadron level but concentrate on Battlegroup missions, some of which will be assessed by the respective Formation HQ. For most of 2002 CATT has been undergoing trials. The Royal Dragoon Guards and the Irish Guards were assigned to this task. The outcome has been that the Warminster site is now in service but there remains some system instability in Sennelager, delaying acceptance. However be in no doubt that the system is truly a ‘world beater’. At £350m there is nothing else of this quality and size anywhere in the world. The US Army has a similar system called CCTT, which is only a sub- unit size trainer. Do not forget, the system is designed primarily to train armoured battlegroups. A spin off is that Formation Recce can train as well, but not to the same fidelity. Yes there are 8 Scimitars, but the Regiment needs 36. In order to overcome this crews will man the Warriors, but these will be guised so that on the graphics they look like Scimitar. Inside there are of course a number of differences, but crews must remember that CATT is a tactical trainer, a tool for the command structure to train and evaluate itself and so must look beyond these few lim- itations. Striker crews will man GVS and Support Troops are likely to only have a dismounted role in defence. Troop Leaders are likely to use the Scimitar as they have better 360 vision. In the field a section mans an OP for a couple of days at a time, but at CATT missions last 5-8 hours, so there is not the same fatigue. In the field the four crew not observing help put up cam nets, make brews, sleep, do sentry and so on, yet in CATT none of this is replicated. In defence there is little point a driv- er sitting at his station for six hours - he would not do that in real life. A similar limitation is the redundancy of section size OPs, so all OPs will be single car. In the field to not sight enemy for 2 days is not an issue, but at CATT not sighting enemy for 2 hours will prove boring. Do we increase the enemy at the risk of creating the incorrect Genfor doctrinal template? On the other hand a Recce advance to contact or withdrawal will be a demanding exercise. So when visiting CATT do not expect it to be a panacea of all filture training, merely an adjunct to field training. It will help armoured units get their proce- dures right before going into the field. Attempting the same Regimental bridge crossing three times in a day to get the drill right is not something that needs to be experienced in the rain and can waste track mileage. Finally my first comment was that all commanders should stand by. Digitisation might not be in the Army yet but it is here in Excon, similar to the BATUS Asset Tracking System (BATS). Excon monitors all vehicles with a ‘stealth view’. One screen displays every vehicle as a blue icon with its call sign. The operator can see when any vehicle fires, e.g. intentional fratricide! The operator can tether the computer to follow a particular call sign and even go inside his turret and look through the sites of the commander or gunner. Mist and rain can be introduced to restrict visibility, as can darkness and any vehicle can be ‘god gunned’. The good news is there is no NBC training and each simulator has a GPS. There is, however, one small limitation to crews, especially recce, and that is all train- ing is ‘closed down’ - Enjoy! MRW ”jar-:7 BLOCKH“ P domarwen ARMS TACTICAL TRAINER x...r_-_ Major Woo/9y and a cudd/y rem/nde {of where he works) m h/s safe c/utches |
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