Sixty members of B Company, 4th Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland (4 SCOTS), recently took part in live fire and tactical training at Cumbria’s Warcop Ranges.
The training consisted of a battalion live fire range package, night and daytime attacks, culminating in a company attack using night vision optics.
4 SCOTS, a light mechanised infantry battalion, is preparing for imminent deployment to Romania for Exercise Steadfast Dart, a major NATO exercise in Eastern Europe.
During the pre-deployment training, the infantry soldiers became more competent in drills, movement on the ranges and applied weaponry knowledge whilst firing live ammunition.
Second Lieutenant Simon Owtram, 4 SCOTS Platoon Commander, said: “The aim of the training was to get the soldiers used to being in a tactical scenario firing live rounds and getting familiar with their surroundings on the range.
“It builds confidence so they are competent to do what they are trained to do. The Highlanders enjoy it; it’s a good opportunity for them to use the weapons in the way they’re meant to be used.”
With lows of minus one degree at Warcop, the weather added an extra challenge.
Second Lieutenant Owtram added: “Although it was extremely cold, it was nowhere near as bad as it will be in Romania, so this was a good opportunity to ease into it and show the soldiers’ mental resilience to get through the training.”
Highlander Marcus Watson said: “Every day is a learning curve so it’s good we have each other, there’s always something you can learn from someone else as we all have different views and ways of approaching different scenarios, so it was good to be out here and develop as a team.”
The Royal Regiment of Scotland (SCOTS) is the senior line infantry regiment and only Scottish line infantry of the British Army.
