Issue 268 March 2013
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URBAN WARRIORS: ARMY TRAINING GOES VIRTUAL DefenceFocus Royal Navy | Army | Royal Air Force | Ministry of Defence | ISSUE #268 MARCH/13 MINI CHOPPERS British troops first to fly high-tech kit p14 SMALL STEP FOR MANKIND Giant leap for amputees p12 PRIME LOCATION From Whitehall to Hollywood p22 COMBATBARBIE NANAVIGATORVIGATOR Regulars P6 BIG PICTURE Royal Marines conduct ice-breaking drills as part of cold weather warfare training P16 VERBATIM First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope retires from the Royal Navy P24 MY MEDALS Army photographer Sergeant Adrian Harlen looks back P31 LAZY DAYS IN LEEDS One lucky reader will win a pampering spa break in Leeds Features P5 ARMY BASING MY MEDALS: Where the Army will come home to P8 PREPARING FOR THE FRONT LINE MULTINATIONAL TROOPS TAKING 1 Mechanized Brigade carry out pre-deployment training for Afghanistan PART IN OP SILICON, P24 Picture: Sergeant Adrian Harlen Sergeant Picture: P10 FUTURE OF FORCES BROADCASTING BFBS sign a new 10-year contract that will deliver more channels and great value P18 P14 P14 MINI CHOPPERS PROTECT TROOPS Black Hornet will provide ground troops with vital situational awareness P18 APPLIANCE OF SCIENCE The Army exploits science to help identify the needs of Future Force 2020 P22 MOD IN THE MOVIES Tom Cruise shoots his new blockbuster at MOD Main Building P28 BATTLE OF THE BULGE Signs of a hernia to watch out for and how it can be treated with no lasting effects MARCH 2013 | ISSUE 268 | 3 EDITOR’SNOTE FIONA SIMPSON available to amputee Service personnel. DefenceFocus You can also read Tristan Kelly’s In any big report into the virtual videogame-like For everyone in defence organisation, even training world of the Army’s Urban Published by the Ministry of Defence MOD, change is Warrior exercise. Level 1 Zone C always on the It’s all change for the Army too, MOD, Main Building agenda, whether at with the recent basing announcement Whitehall London SW1A 2HB the centre or out on (opposite) which will see thousands of General enquiries: 020 721 8 1320 the front line. troops returning from Germany in the It’s human next few years. This isn’t our last word EDITOR: Fiona Simpson Tel: 020 7218 3949 nature to be on the subject, look out for email: [email protected] suspicious of change more in-depth coverage of how this ASSISTANT EDITOR: Ian Carr and we don’t all mammoth task will be achieved in Tel: 020 7218 2825 embrace it with open arms. But here at the April edition. email: [email protected] Defence Focus we will always do our best Ian Carr talks to the soldiers during ASSISTANT EDITOR: Tristan Kelly to try and explain it to you. their final stages of training before Tel: 020 7218 4252 Some of that change is heading to Afghanistan on Herrick 18, email: [email protected] technological. Lorraine McBride, a looking at how the mission has changed, ASSISTANT EDITOR: Leigh Hamilton reluctant convert to the mobile phone, with a lot of the responsibility for Tel: 020 7218 5988 is a self-confessed technophobe.In operations now having passed over to the email: [email protected] this month’s edition, however, you can Afghan National Security Forces. ASSISTANT EDITOR: Lorraine McBride go on a journey of discovery with her You see, we might think we are Tel: 020 721 82341 as she looks at some of the amazing all standing still and that it takes a email: [email protected] applications of wizzy gadgetry in MOD, frustrating age to get anything done, but ART EDITOR: Mark Eagle including futuristic miniature helicopters actually change is all around us. Now, go Tel: 020 721 8 3658 and the new bionic legs that are now and give it a big hug. email: [email protected] DISTRIBUTION AND SUPPORT: Shell Daruwala Tel: 020 7218 1320 email: [email protected] Ministry of Defence online MOD does not endorse any product or service advertised in Defence Focus, nor does it verify any preferential www.gov.uk/mod treatment offered by any advertiser to MOD employees. Queries on advertisements should be addressed to our advertising agency. Opinions expressed in Defence Focus do not necessarily represent those of the MOD. Articles on all aspects of The Defence News Blog YouTube MOD and Defence will be considered for publication Get a daily update of all the major At Defence Headquarters YouTube the but we reserve the right to edit contributions. MOD defence stories running in the media latest videos from across Defence can staff contributing to Defence Focus should ensure their with the MOD’s official position on the be found, including clips of soldiers on writing is suitable for open publication. key issues, as well as a Defence Diary patrol in Helmand and briefings from Advertising with upcoming events of interest. senior personnel. Advertising sales are handled by Richard Stillman at Ten Alps Media. Tel: 020 7657 1837 Visit www.blogs.mod.uk and subscribe email: [email protected] to the daily alerts. Afghanistan Blog Updated daily with official news on the Distribution The magazine is distributed through major military Facebook/Twitter UK mission in Afghanistan as well as bases, depots and MOD offices. Join over 200,000 followers at the HM with stories from across the media and Armed Forces Facebook page and personal blogs from Armed Forces receive Defence HQ tweets @DefenceHQ personnel currently deployed. on Twitter. www.ukforcesafghanistan.wordpress.com Produced by Williams Lea Ltd on 100% recycled paper. MOD Helpline 01603 696329. 4 | WWW.GOV.UK/MOD | MARCH 2013 ARMY BASING A FOND FAREWELL DETAILS OF WHERE BRITISH ARMY UNITS WILL BE STATIONED ON THEIR RETURN FROM GERMANY HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED fter more than seven decades accommodation and facilities for troops and way to deliver success on future operations. serving in Germany, the Army has their families. General Sir Peter Wall, Chief of the detailed plans for when and to The Government is investing £1.8 General Staff, said: “This announcement A where units will move when they billion in the new basing plan and £1 billion is very welcome news for the Army. The leave the country for good. of this will be spent on building brand plan provides an excellent springboard for The Regular Army Basing Plan sets out new accommodation. This will result in operations overseas and it affords welcome the future laydown of the Army as it moves around 1,900 new family homes being built certainty for where people will live.” back to the UK and restructures to deliver and more than 7,800 new rooms, along The moves also aim to fulfil the its future operating model via Army 2020. with more than 800 upgraded rooms, Government’s commitment to give Regular Under the plan, around 70 per cent for single soldiers, and more than 450 Army personnel more certainty about of the Army will be brought back from upgraded homes for families. The rest of where they will be based in future. They Germany by the end of 2015, with the final the investment will be spent on technical form part of the wider commitment under 4,300 returning by the end of 2019. A move infrastructure. the New Employment Model to give Service that is expected to eventually save £240 The plan is a critical milestone in the personnel and their families greater million a year. Transforming Defence agenda, delivering stability, allowing them to integrate into The troops will be based across the UK, the battle-winning Armed Forces set out in local communities, their spouses to find with major concentrations around Salisbury the Defence Vision, and Future Force 2020 long-term jobs and their children to have Plain, Edinburgh and Leuchars in Scotland, as set out in the 2010 Strategic Defence continuity in education. More details can be Catterick in North Yorkshire, Aldershot, and Security Review. The plan is also key found on the Defence Intranet. DF Colchester, Stafford and the East Midlands. to Army 2020, providing a basing laydown The new basing plan will make the best use in the UK required to generate military LOOK OUT FOR MORE ON BASING IN of the defence estate and provide better capability in the most effective and efficient THE NEXT EDITION OF DEFENCE FOCUS MAJOR NORTH EAST ARMY Catterick, York, Dishforth, Topcliffe and Harlow Hill SITES Army 2020 manpower total: 7,500 SCOTLAND 4 Edinburgh and Leuchars EAST MIDLANDS Army 2020 manpower Cottesmore and North total: 4,000 Luffenham Army 2020 manpower total: 5,800 WEST MIDLANDS Stafford and Donnington 3 EASTERN ENGLAND Army 2020 manpower Colchester and total: 3,200 Swanton Morley Army 2020 manpower 7 5 total: 3,500 SALISBURY PLAIN Tidworth, Bulford, 6 Larkhill, Warminster, ALDERSHOT Perham Down and Upavon 1 2 Army 2020 manpower Army 2020 manpower total: 15,000 total: 4,200 MARCHAPRIL 20122013 | ISSUE 226860 | 5 BIG PICTURE ROYAL MARINES FROM 3 COMMANDO BRIGADE CONDUCTING ICE- BREAKING DRILLS AS PART OF THE SURVIVAL PHASE OF COLD WEATHER WARFARE TRAINING IN NORWAY 6 | WWW.GOV.UK/MOD | MARCH 2013 Picture: PO(Phot) Sean Clee Picture: MARCH 2013 | ISSUE 268 | 7 HERRICK 18 SELF-SERVICE AS 1 MECHANIZED BRIGADE DEPLOY TO HELMAND, THE NEXT FEW MONTHS WILL BE CRUCIAL WRITES IAN CARR his is set to be a critical summer for conducting as much as 90 per cent of Brigadier Rupert Jones, the next the Afghan National Security Forces their own training, Helmand has been commander of Task Force Helmand, (ANSF). So far, with the help and transformed. But this will be the first time believes they will.