43 Commando Force Protection Group RM
P Sqn Summer and Autumn Training
by Lt Dawe-Lane RM
From August to December, P Sqn honed its soldiering skills through a number of exercises across the UK and overseas, increasing lethality during advanced range-work and building experience through mission specific training. This included subterranean warfare, overseas urban training exercises (OTXs), green skills free-thinking enemy evolutions and live Close Quarter Marksmanship (CQM) ranges, all designed to maintain the Sqn’s readiness and enhance its competency in delivering Nuclear Security.
In August the Sqn deployed to Corsham, Wiltshire to utilise the extensive Cold War tunnel system. It was treated as a fictional operational location with its own specific subterranean complexities, chosen as it provided a chance to learn and develop underground SOPs ahead of a subsequent deployment to the caves of Gibraltar.
The sprawling tunnels were an excellent environment to fully test CQB skills and the difficulties associated with subterranean Ops, particularly communication, navigation and Command and Control.
Target identification in the three-dimensional structure was also a challenge and attempting to conduct all actions under black light, tested the Marines’ tactical proficiency.