Ex Heavy Anvil

Exercise HEAVY ANVIL

Scribe: 2Lt Hannah Glaister

Daytime Navigation and Convoy Practise

On 15 March 21, 3 Armoured Company, 6 Armoured Close Support Battalion, deployed on Exercise HEAVY ANVIL to the Salisbury Plain Training Area. The initial deployment consisted of three packets, all heading to Old Carter Barracks: Fwd X led by Lt J Oliver, Fwd Y led by 2Lt H Glaister, and finally HQ. This move allowed for the initial navigation and C2 testing to see where the Company sat before moving onto the training phase of the Exercise.

Once each packet had arrived at Old Carter Barracks and was set up in Platoon and HQ locations, the Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration (RSOI) section of the Exercise began. The RSOI package allowed the Company to slowly build up their knowledge of several integral parts of deployment while keeping inline with the new CSS BCS CTOs that the Company was lucky enough to trial. These consisted of the use of night sights while both on foot and while vehicle based, the role of a Command Post (CP) in a

SV Gearbox Replacement

Platoon and a Company location, convoy drills, rolling replens and vehicle navigation. Both the rolling replenishment and the vehicle navigation were conducted during the day to allow the soldiers to understand how they worked, and then at night to show a more realistic scenario.

Once the RSOI package was complete, the two Platoons moved into ECCPs where they were immediately put to the test of defending their locations as enemy sightings and attacks were a constant threat. This allowed for communication at all levels to be tested, as each attack needed all individuals within the Platoon to understand what was happening, and where. That information was then passed to the Platoon CPs and then finally to Company HQ.

The final attack of this phase saw several enemy assault one of the Platoon locations. While there were enough soldiers to hold and defend the position, there were not enough to strike an effective counter attack, therefore a QRF team was called for from the other Platoon and within just a few short minutes the fire fight was won. The next phase of the Exercise was held at Beaches Barn and was a rehab and maintenance day which allowed everyone to catch up on some muchneeded sleep! This maintenance day gave Company Ops the ability to scrutinise the previous layouts of the CP and come up with future options to trial in the upcoming days. Once mission maintenance on all the vehicles was complete and everyone was back to a fully functional state, the validation section of the exercise began. This phase started with a fully tactical move to an urban environment (Baden Down Farm) using a step up and Company main to control and oversee the movement. Once the Company had moved into location and established Platoon and HQ areas, the first set of ES serials began. The tasking, which came

Working through the night

from our role in supporting 1X Units, was the renewal of two CVR(T) final drives for the RDG. This is where the soldiers came into their own and showed how they would adapt their work to complete the tasks in the field. However, it was not as straight forward as just working on the vehicles; the soldiers also had to work around enemy serials of IDF attacks and assaults on the perimeter and main entry points.

The final scenario of the Exercise was a planned 30 hr Battle Group Rehabilitation. This saw everyone being given a set of Company orders by the OC using a large-scale model to depict all of the locations that would be relevant to the move and rehab. A ROC drill then followed the orders to ensure that everyone had correctly understood how the plan was to be completed. chipper as the end was finally in sight!

The rehab opened at 1000 hrs on 23 Mar and everyone then All that was left to do now was to recover back to Tidworth and focused on the tasks which needed completed within 30 hrs. An ensure all kit was there and in working order. Everyone worked example of such a task was the complete change of an SV gearbox. A together to get everything in order as the kit was the only thing further example was six Land Rovers, each with multiple damage, standing between the Company and a well-deserved long weekend. which needed welding. A particular task, which was completed Exercise HEAVY ANVIL saw a wide range of skills being tested and successfully, was the final layout of Company Ops. put the Company through challenges that the majority of personnel

Throughout this rehab the Company SOIs were examined to see had not faced in years - or at all! how well they coincided with each of the training serials and to see how fit for purpose they were. A scribe was asked to take notes on the best way to improve the SOIs.

Initially, everyone was happy with the time allowed. However, as the hours ticked by it became apparent to everyone that 30 hrs was nowhere near as much time as was initially thought. Despite this, everyone managed to complete all tasks within the rehab time and were even able to put on a fantastic visitors’ day to personnel from 6 Bn to show what the Company had achieved over the 10 day Exercise period, including achieving ALPHA, BRAVA and CHARLIE level on the new CTOs. The rehab closed at 1400 hrs on 24 Mar and everyone suddenly became a bit more

Getting set up for the rehab and maintenance day No rest for the wicked!