Michael Alexander joined the Leuchars-based Royal Scots Dragoon Guards at Warcop in Cumbria for the regiment’s first live fire range package since being based back to the UK from Germany. It comes as the regiment prepares for possible deployment overseas.
The three-man crew of the Jackal armoured vehicle shift into position as their commander scans the mist-covered landscape before them.
Scudding clouds cloak the hilltops and it’s eerily quiet across the windswept moorland.
Photos and video by Kris Miller
Then suddenly a movement is detected. It’s a vehicle moving from left to right.
“Gas gas gas!” screams the commander to his driver and gunner as they quickly take off their helmets, don their anti-chemical attack respirators and replace their headgear, before the gunner opens fire with the Jackal’s General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG).
The crack of gunfire fills the air as red tracer arcs through the sky, “neutralising” the target up to 800 metres away and setting fire to the surrounding bracken.
Welcome to the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (SCOTS DG) latest training exercise at the Warcop firing ranges in Cumbria.
For the past fortnight, the Leuchars-based regiment, which recently relocated to Scotland from Germany, has been firing live weapons in an exercise at the Ministry of Defence’s 27,000-acre Warcop ranges.
The annual exercise is all part of the troops’ ongoing conversion to light cavalry after 75 years on tanks.
Following a full battlefield multi-regiment exercise named Wessex Storm being held on Salisbury Plain this summer, the SCOTS DG will become the British Army’s lead light cavalry battle group for a year.
This means that if an incident was to develop anywhere in the world and Britain wanted to have a military influence there, they would likely be deployed.
In an exclusive interview with The Courier at the Warcop ranges, Leuchars Station commander and commanding officer of the SCOTS DG, Lieutenant Colonel Dom Coombes, said the Cumbrian exercise was crucial to the soldiers’ preparedness.
He said: “Being based back in the UK affords us a great opportunity to carry out training on home soil as we remain physically ready and battle worthy for a broad range of tasks, and this is especially important now as later in the year we will become the lead light cavalry battle group which means we’ll be on high readiness to deploy overseas should we be required.
“Whilst global conflict remains volatile and chaotic ensuring we know how to operate our vehicles and our weapons with confidence and with accuracy is paramount to us being effective when it really counts.”
Around 90% (370 members) of the SCOTS DG are at Warcop during The Courier’s 24-hour stay.
A small group has remained behind at Leuchars to “keep the home fires burning”.
But for the bulk of the soldiers and officers, it’s a chance to bond and there’s a real sense of camaraderie and teamwork whether they are on the firing ranges, eating burgers in the rest tents or back at the Warcop training centre transit camp.
The Warcop ranges, which have existed since 1940, are an important part of the Cumbrian economy and when parts of the region were devastated by floods in December, troops from the 2nd Battalion Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment (2LANCS), deployed to help build flood defences in Warwick Bridge, Braithwaite and Appleby, just a few miles away.
The SCOTS DG recently went on rotation to become the UK stand-by battalion on 12 hours’ notice to deal with any major UK civil emergency in the future.
Lt Col Coombes added: “Being here now is quite interesting because this area was hit quite badly by the floods in December.
“So talking to locals around the place they speak pretty fondly of the army and it’s great for our guys to hear how the support was appreciated.”
