The following article is taken from the latest issue of the Globe & Laurel magazine.
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Over 40 ranks from RMR Merseyside deployed on Ex Urban Storm on 24-26 November 2023, to the West Yorkshire Police Training and Development Centre. This excellent location offers a complex urban environment, set within a realistic street complex to facilitate Close Quarter Battle (CQB) training.
Ranks arrived on the Friday evening and received an initial exercise brief and kit issue, prior to heads down. The following morning, we were organised into groups by the Unit PW1 Sgt Clay, to mix the newer ranks with those more experienced at CQB. Training commenced with ‘dry’ drills, focusing on the five-step entry drill of single rooms, to reinforce the CQB fundamentals.
With the support of three CQBIs, each group was provided with regular debriefs and coaching after every run through. We quickly learnt to take responsibility for mistakes and understood that this was the key to overall development, as tactical decision-making needs to become instinctive in a high-pressure CQB situation.
As the teams improved, we moved onto adjoining rooms, and added in corridor and stairway drills. The training team provided further invaluable feedback on common areas for improvement such as incorporating ‘pro-words’, carrying out post firing checks and room/building marking procedures. After this practice, and having confirmed team SOPs, group cohesion and fluidity began to improve.
In the afternoon training progressed to ‘sim-on-target’, incorporating primary to secondary weapon transition drills, encouraged by loading 5.56mm magazines with fewer rounds to force a stoppage. Many ranks had recently attended Ex Commando Phoenix where they had range time practising transition drills, and this proved a great opportunity to further refine these skills in a more dynamic environment. Having taken on the training team’s feedback it was clear our skills had progressed throughout the day and we headed back to the accommodation looking forward to the next day.
Day two began where we left off with sim-on-target to get us back in the right frame of mind before moving onto ‘sim-on-sim’, incorporating practice grenades. Having an enemy firing back at you added further realism to the exercise and proved the relevance of the tactical movement and the SOPs we had learnt on day one.
The exercise culminated with the opportunity to launch a full-scale ‘sim-on-sim attack’, making full use of the urban complex to bring together all the skills and drills we had been working on. We were split into two groups and tasked with moving through the street, before assaulting each of the buildings en-route to the final target, which so happened to be a mock-up of a pub!
This final action highlighted the importance of being brilliant at the basics and intra-team communication. Link men were vital in enabling Command and Control and avoiding unintended ‘blue-on-blue’ contact.
Over the course of the exercise, we progressed from simple to complex CQB scenarios and all ranks performed well during the final assault. Ex Urban Storm has set a platform to build on in future CQB exercises, the next being Ex Condor Strike in January 2024.
It is only through repetition that individuals will get their CQB fundamentals to a level where they become subconscious, allowing teams to overcome more difficult targets. As ever, the RMR constantly strives to improve so that we may become interoperable with our regular counterparts.
You can read more about the Royal Marines Reserves and their activities across the globe in each edition of the Globe & Laurel magazine.
Read more from the Journal of the Royal Marines
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Globe & Laurel – RMA – The Royal Marines Charity (rma-trmc.org)
