Live firing and close integration with allies were the focus of an infantry package in the Middle East.
Staged on Al Quwayrah Training Area, Exercise Olive Grove put members of A Company, The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment and the King Hussein Brigade of the Jordanian Armed Forces through a testing series of scenarios built around lessons from current global conflicts.
They included casualty evacuations, night attacks and patrolling the peaks and wadis of the unforgiving desert terrain.
As well as validating the British troops’ readiness for high-end warfighting, the exercise saw the host nation soldiers integrated at section level, with teams from both sides exchanging tactics in skills such as urban combat.
For LCpl James Vanstone, it was the first time working closely with a partner force.
“They’ve been excellent,” he said.
“They turn up every morning with so much energy and enthusiasm and I learnt probably more from them than they have from me.”
