A WORCESTER soldier has been testing his skills during a live firing exercise on the ranges in Bergen-Horne, northern Germany, on the Challenger 2 tank.
During the three-week exercise, Corporal Nathan Glanville, serving with The Queen’s Royal Hussars (Queen’s Own the Royal Irish), was rigorously tested in his role as the commander of a Challenger 2 main battle tank.
The training on the vast German range saw the regiment undertake a number of different firing scenarios including night firing, firing while on the move and firing at moving targets.
The scenarios are all designed to prepare them for their deployment on a major training exercise in Canada later this year.
Nathan, who has been with the regiment since 2008 seeing service in Iraq and Afghanistan, said: “This exercise has seen us build on earlier training and progress to training the crews in the firing systems and firing live rounds; something many of them have not had the chance to do previously.
“As the tank commander my role has been to oversee the crew in training offer advice and guidance where necessary with the intention of making them into an efficient and competent crew.
“They have developed massively over the last three weeks, learning all the required skills and drills that will be needed for when we go to Canada.
“Personally, I am really looking forward to Canada and seeing all our training come together.”
For Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Alex Porter, the live firing exercise was the culmination of months of hard training.
“We commenced the exercise refreshing the basic skills of operating the vehicles and getting the crews working together as cohesive teams,” he said.
“From this, we moved into crew firing packages on the ranges to give them experience and confidence before finally progressing to troop firing packages.
“The aim of the exercise has been to make the crews effective in a pressurised environment, it has delivered this and consequently it has been a hugely successful exercise,” he added.
