Army undertakes critical training exercise at Castlemartin Training Area
Army undertakes critical training exercise at Castlemartin Training Area
The Army will be using the Castlemartin Training Area for three large-scale exercise in 2025. The Royal Tank Regiment Battlegroup will train from 9th – 27th June, followed by the Queen’s Royal Hussars Battlegroup between 13th October and 7th November. That will be closely followed by the Royal Welsh Battlegroup between 17th November and 5th December. Other training will continue as normal between these larger exercises.
The exercises will provide critical training for the units involved. The Royal Tank Regiment is the oldest tank unit in the world and operates the Challenger 2 main battle tank, among other vehicles. The Challenger 2 is also used by the Queen’s Royal Hussars, which is the British Army’s senior armoured regiment. The Royal Welsh is an armoured infantry regiment whose origins can be traced back to 1689.
Castlemartin Training Area is large enough for live-firing, tactical battlegroup-level exercises involving multiple armoured fighting vehicles and the site plays a key role in maintaining full training capability for units within the UK.
These exercises will see the training area in use by hundreds of personnel and require the transportation of numerous heavy vehicles to and from the area. This will begin during the preparation phase, approximately a week prior to the start of each exercise and will include Challenger 2 tanks and other large armoured vehicles. Unfortunately this may cause some travel delays to local traffic.
The exercises will also involve live firing from Monday to Friday between 8am and 6pm and night firing on Monday to Thursday between 8pm and 3am. These times are the earliest and latest that firing can take place and on some days it is expected that firing will not take place for these full times.
Disturbances to local residents will be kept to a minimum and firing times will be published widely within the local community to help minimise disruption.
The Defence Training Estate plays a vital role in providing a safe place to train ensuring our Armed Forces are prepared and ready to deploy on operations at home and abroad. Castlemartin Training Area is managed by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, supported by Landmarc Support Services, which provides the facilities for the delivery of military training.
Senior Training Safety Officer for Castlemartin, Major John Poole said:
“Castlemartin Training Area provides essential training opportunities for large scale exercises, such as this, which support the training of military personnel from multiple units. We remain grateful to the local population for their continued support.”
The public can find out more about the exercise by visiting the GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) website and searching ‘Castlemartin firing notices’.