This is Cornwall
November 19, 2013
NATO strategists will be ‘war-zone ready’ after training at RAF St Mawgan
Military strategists from 17 nations have begun a key training exercise at RAF St Mawgan that will ensure they are ready to control any warzone worldwide
Around 2,200 personnel from NATO’s Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) will remain at the base until mid-December in what is believed to be the largest deployment of ground forces in the county since the Second World War.
The team, which has operated in Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan, must be mobilised and ready to take strategic control of any Nato-led mission worldwide within 28 days.
At St Mawgan, they will run through role-play situations and react to mock incidents such as helicopter crashes and civilian massacres to ensure they are ready to deal with a host of challenging combat situations.
Lieutenant Colonel Charlie Fraser, who oversees infrastructure provision for the ARRC team, including accommodation, food, electricity and water, said: “RAF St Mawgan has provided great support, and is truly one of a very small number of locations capable of providing the space and the life support to run an exercise of this scale.”
Wing Commander Philip Lamb, station commander, added: “RAF St Mawgan, though clearly very much still an RAF Station, is also proud to host many tri-service visitors as part of our established mission providing high end training to a broad joint and international audience. That we can support the ARRC is testament to our capacity to support just about any deployment.”
A series of exercises will be run on the site, which now accommodates servicemen and women from countries including Denmark, Canada, Italy, the United States and Portugal, as well as personnel from Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, and New Zealand.
Flight Lieutenant Jeff Spencer, the station’s spokesman, said: “A deployment of this scale is testament to the operational and strategic value that RAF St Mawgan, currently celebrating its 70th birthday, continues to provide in support of UK Defence. It clearly shows the value being drawn from the existing resource by the small core of 280 military and civilian station personnel.
“The future of the station is based on clear value to the current defence plan. There is no doubt that the pro-active nature of the people at this station in encouraging and supporting major exercises such as the ARRC, as well as the operationally essential role of defence survival training underscores us as a centre of excellence in the South West.”
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