1,600 British troops head to Jordan for war game

@Providence @mike2000 is back @Blue Marlin @Pakistani Exile @Steve781 @waz

The SDSR 2015 will see the army's deployable expeditionary force will increase from 30.000 to 50.000 by 2025.
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A logistics war game aims to ensure the Army can still dispatch a 30,000-strong force to a crisis zone anywhere in the world, despite sharp cuts in the past five years


A Challenger 2 tank from the British 7th Armoured Brigade (Desert Rats) moves through the southern Iraqi city of Basra in 2003.

More than British 1,600 troops will head to the Middle East to practise an Iraq invasion-scale operation for the first time in more than a decade.

The logistics war game in Jordan aims to ensure the Army can still deploy a 30,000-strong force of tanks and troops to a crisis zone anywhere in the world, despite sharp defence cuts in the past five years.

Exercise Shamal Storm could be a dry run for one day having to send a large armoured force of British troops to Eastern Europe if there was ever a Russian confrontation with Nato, sources said.

It comes after American commanders last year said they were concerned defence cuts would mean Britain was no longer be able to send a division-strength force of troops to join an allied operation as it did during the Iraq 2003 campaign.

More than 300 military vehicles are being shipped to the Jordan, where logistics, medical, intelligence and bomb disposal experts will practise supporting a massive British military expedition.


A Mastiff armoured vehicle bound for Jordan being loaded late last month at Marchwood military port Photo: Crown Copyright

Army sources said despite being held in Jordan, bordering Syria, the desert exercise was not a dress rehearsal for sending British troops against Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (Isil) militants.

A source said: “This isn’t a counter-Isil exercise. If anything, this is much more about us being prepared to join the US in Ukraine than it is in Syria.

“This is not the sort of kind of force you expect to roll into Aleppo to take on a bunch of jihadists.”

After more than a decade of fighting a long-running counter insurgency campaign in Afghanistan, where no more than 10,000 troops were deployed at any one time, the Army is trying to relearn skills for larger scale armoured conflict.

The exercise in the south western desert of Jordan will be the biggest of its kind since 2001, when British troops held a major drill called Saif Sereea in Oman..

Troops will be drawn from 3 UK Division and Force Troops Command and will rehearse “theatre entry tactics” which involve landing in a hostile area, setting up a field hospital and dealing with chemical and biological weapons. Soldiers from 1st Bn The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, will provide security.



Military lorries bound for Jordan Photo: Crown Copyright

Late last month more than 80 vehicles including heavily armoured Mastiffs were loaded at the Marchwood military port near Southampton aboard the MV Anvil Point bound for the Jordanian Red Sea port of Aqaba.

Jordan has been a key contributor to the coalition fighting Islamic State and last year one its pilots was shot down and paraded in a cage before being executed in a barbaric public.

It now has a huge number of displaced persons in camps on the Jordanian border and with growing economic hardships in the country, there are fears that Islamic State’s influence may grow.

The UK has a long military connection with Jordan, many of its officers are trained at Sandhurst and a British Army team is attached to the King’s Army headquarters as instructors.

An Army spokesman said: “The annual exercise in Jordan presents the British Army with a challenging environment in which to assure its combat readiness to deploy and support an armoured force of up to 30,000 troops anywhere in the world. The exercise will test key evolving concepts such as the air deployment of a very high readiness field hospital and the latest explosives ordnance disposal and search capabilities, all of which will enable us to be more agile in deterring threats to the UK and its interests.”

1,600 British troops head to Jordan for war game - Telegraph

English style message to Russia ı guess

Vauban said:

@Providence @mike2000 is back @Blue Marlin @Pakistani Exile @Steve781 @waz

The SDSR 2015 will see the army's deployable expeditionary force will increase from 30.000 to 50.000 by 2025.
-

A logistics war game aims to ensure the Army can still dispatch a 30,000-strong force to a crisis zone anywhere in the world, despite sharp cuts in the past five years

A Challenger 2 tank from the British 7th Armoured Brigade (Desert Rats) moves through the southern Iraqi city of Basra in 2003.

More than British 1,600 troops will head to the Middle East to practise an Iraq invasion-scale operation for the first time in more than a decade.

The logistics war game in Jordan aims to ensure the Army can still deploy a 30,000-strong force of tanks and troops to a crisis zone anywhere in the world, despite sharp defence cuts in the past five years.

Exercise Shamal Storm could be a dry run for one day having to send a large armoured force of British troops to Eastern Europe if there was ever a Russian confrontation with Nato, sources said.

It comes after American commanders last year said they were concerned defence cuts would mean Britain was no longer be able to send a division-strength force of troops to join an allied operation as it did during the Iraq 2003 campaign.

More than 300 military vehicles are being shipped to the Jordan, where logistics, medical, intelligence and bomb disposal experts will practise supporting a massive British military expedition.

A Mastiff armoured vehicle bound for Jordan being loaded late last month at Marchwood military port Photo: Crown Copyright

Army sources said despite being held in Jordan, bordering Syria, the desert exercise was not a dress rehearsal for sending British troops against Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (Isil) militants.

A source said: “This isn’t a counter-Isil exercise. If anything, this is much more about us being prepared to join the US in Ukraine than it is in Syria.

“This is not the sort of kind of force you expect to roll into Aleppo to take on a bunch of jihadists.”

After more than a decade of fighting a long-running counter insurgency campaign in Afghanistan, where no more than 10,000 troops were deployed at any one time, the Army is trying to relearn skills for larger scale armoured conflict.

The exercise in the south western desert of Jordan will be the biggest of its kind since 2001, when British troops held a major drill called Saif Sereea in Oman..

Troops will be drawn from 3 UK Division and Force Troops Command and will rehearse “theatre entry tactics” which involve landing in a hostile area, setting up a field hospital and dealing with chemical and biological weapons. Soldiers from 1st Bn The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, will provide security.

Military lorries bound for Jordan Photo: Crown Copyright

Late last month more than 80 vehicles including heavily armoured Mastiffs were loaded at the Marchwood military port near Southampton aboard the MV Anvil Point bound for the Jordanian Red Sea port of Aqaba.

Jordan has been a key contributor to the coalition fighting Islamic State and last year one its pilots was shot down and paraded in a cage before being executed in a barbaric public.

It now has a huge number of displaced persons in camps on the Jordanian border and with growing economic hardships in the country, there are fears that Islamic State’s influence may grow.

The UK has a long military connection with Jordan, many of its officers are trained at Sandhurst and a British Army team is attached to the King’s Army headquarters as instructors.

An Army spokesman said: “The annual exercise in Jordan presents the British Army with a challenging environment in which to assure its combat readiness to deploy and support an armoured force of up to 30,000 troops anywhere in the world. The exercise will test key evolving concepts such as the air deployment of a very high readiness field hospital and the latest explosives ordnance disposal and search capabilities, all of which will enable us to be more agile in deterring threats to the UK and its interests.”

1,600 British troops head to Jordan for war game - Telegraph

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Welcome move but still not enough. We need to bring back our troops level to pre-2010 levels at least ,when this clueless conservative government went about scrapping our defence equipements(aircraft carrier, sea harriers, Nimrod maritime patrol aircrafts etc) and troops. We need to double the size of our current military to meet our global obligattions amd deployments.

Its true that we dont have/face any immeediate threat in our neighbourhood whatsoever, since we are a secure power. In fact, if we didnt have global obligations/commitments and responsibilities, I will agree that then the current size army/military is more than enough. However, this is not the case , since we have military bases,overseas territories and troops all around the world. So it's imperative that our government gives our boys the capabilities to protect and patrol all these territories.

Moreover we might not have/face any major immediate threat now(bar a distant Russian provocation) but we never know what can happen tomorrow. It's always better to prepare and be ready for the worse.

mike2000 is back said:

Welcome move but still not enough. We need to bring back our troops level to pre-2010 levels at least ,when this clueless conservative government went about scrapping our defence equipements(aircraft carrier, sea harriers, Nimrod maritime patrol aircrafts etc) and troops. We need to double the size of our current military to meet our global obligattions amd deployments.

Its true that we dont have/face any immeediate threat in our neighbourhood whatsoever, since we are a secure power. In fact, if we didnt have global obligations/commitments and responsibilities, I will agree that then the current size army/military is more than enough. However, this is not the case , since we have military bases,overseas territories and troops all around the world. So it's imperative that our government gives our boys the capabilities to protect and patrol all these territories.

Moreover we might not have/face any major immediate threat now(bar a distant Russian provocation) but we never know what can happen tomorrow. Better to always prepare for the worse.

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Even if your army is smaller,it remains a very capable and modern army. (With capabilities some countries are dreaming of). Times of very large armies is gone. The future will be about small,well trained and equiped,mobile forces. But i agree that bringing troops level to pre-2010 would be the minimum. (You can afford it.)

Jordan is a good friend and ally, good news in general.

Vauban said:

Even if your army is smaller,it remains a very capable and modern army. (With capabilities some countries are dreaming of). Times of very large armies is gone. The future will be about small,well trained and equiped,mobile forces. But i agree that bringing troops level to pre-2010 would be the minimum. (You can afford it.)

Click to expand...

True, but we still need to increase our troops levels judging by our international commitments. Plus, I do recignise that this conservative government cut our defence forces and equipments in other to 'save cost and bring down the deficit' .
What they forgot is that an economic crisis is cyclical in nature and so they are recurring or revolving in cycles vveeey now and then. So they are bound to dissapear after a few years, as we can see we have recovered from this already and our economy is growing quite hralthily these paast years(3% in 2014, 2.5% last year, projected 2.6% this year and Probably better these coming years as the global economy recovers). So they should have bared this in mind and maintain our forces, instead of cutting them down in times of crisis only to start increasing them back a few years later when the economy recovers/picks up.
Lack of long term starrtegic thinking on the part of this conservative government in this regard.

Israel Egypt And Jordan should increase cooperation against ISIS.
Both Israel and Jordan face unstable border in the north and cooperation on this issue will be welcome.
Ya'alon meets with Jordan's King Abdullah - Israel News, Ynetnews

The King (ha) has very close links to the UK.
King Abdullah's mother is English.
He was commissioned into the British army as a Lieutenant.
He has graduated from Sandhurst.

And the red coats are at it again!!!! Mikey you stiff *ss Brit!!! @mike2000 is back the "Empire Strikes Back"!??! The Yanks are getting nervous!!!