Exercise
102 Force Support Bn REME on Ex IRON VIPER 21 Scribe: SSgt Ruvino
102 FS Bn REME deployed on Ex IRON VIPER 21
O
n the 12 Nov 21, 102 FS Bn REME deployed on its annual two-week exercise, but this time it felt a little different due to the fact we would be feeding into Ex IRON VIPER and would see Bn personnel operating out of different locations as part of an evolving “battle picture”.
Ex IRON VIPER was the primary training opportunity for 3 Regiment RLC and 27 Regiment RLC, delivering their biennial DELTA validation. It is in preparation for their certification to be held at readiness as the Close Support Logistic Regiment to the Armoured Infantry Brigade and Divisional Logistic Regiment respectively. The ES Gp involved was an integrated REME Bn, led by 4 Bn REME and incorporating formed Company’s from both 102 and 103 Bn REME along with Babcock DSG support. The composite Coy(-), led by 146 Div Sp Coy HQ personnel, was made up of 5 + 33 personnel from across all four companies and supported by Bn Permanent Staff. For the start of the two-week period, we all made our way to Warcop for an RSOI package and in-depth Voice Procedure (VP) training for a couple of days – which proved to be invaluable for the next stage of our exercise. Before departing Warcop we had a small remembrance parade then made our way in convoy down to Driffield, another piece of valuable rehearsal training that would pay dividends later. We were lucky enough to be accommodated in the cadet camp for the Unit Based Virtual Trainer (UBVT) stage - which I was really not looking forward to as a previous experience had made me very apprehensive. The team were great and surprisingly I actually enjoyed it. It really is a very valuable training tool and they managed to incorporate some live skills to run alongside it, which worked very well. The UBVT consists of a screen, laptop, games controller and a headset. It was brilliant for practicing VP, Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTPs), as well as some key Reports and Returns (R2). We were given REME specific repair and recovery tasks with a real-life OCpl Elliot, second from the left, using his civilian experience from working Gp. The missions always had a curveball though at Jaguar Land Rover to teach both Reserve and Regular tradesmen
24 craftsmaneditor@reme-rhq.org.uk
