The Army will be using Castlemartin Training Area near Pembroke for three critical large-scale exercises in 2025, starting on Monday, June 9.

The Royal Tank Regiment Battlegroup will train from June 9 to 27, followed by the Queen’s Royal Hussars Battlegroup between October 13 and November 7. That will be closely followed by the Royal Welsh Battlegroup between November 17 and December 5. Other training will continue as normal between these larger exercises.

The exercises will provide critical training for the units involved. The Royal Tank Regiment is the oldest tank unit in the world and operates the Challenger 2 main battle tank, among other vehicles. The Challenger 2 is also used by the Queen’s Royal Hussars, which is the British Army’s senior armoured regiment. The Royal Welsh is an armoured infantry regiment whose origins can be traced back to 1689.

Castlemartin Training Area is large enough for live-firing, tactical battlegroup-level exercises involving multiple armoured fighting vehicles and the site plays a key role in maintaining full training capability for units within the UK.

These exercises will see the training area in use by hundreds of personnel and require the transportation of numerous heavy vehicles to and from the area. This will begin during the preparation phase, approximately a week prior to the start of each exercise and will include Challenger 2 tanks and other large armoured vehicles. Unfortunately, this may cause some travel delays to local traffic.

The exercises will also involve live firing from Monday to Friday between 8am and 6pm and night firing on Monday to Thursday between 8pm and 3am. These times are the earliest and latest that firing can take place and on some days it is expected that firing will not take place for these full times.

The road from Bosherston to St Govan’s Chapel, the footpath from St Govan’s Head to Broadhaven, the road leading to Stack Rocks (Green Bridge of Wales) and the footpath to St Govans will all be closed day and night from 7.30am June 9 to 4.45pm June 13, from 7.30am June 16 to 4.45pm June 20 and from 7.30am June 23 to 4.45pm June 27.

Disturbances to local residents will be kept to a minimum. Senior Training Safety Officer for Castlemartin, Major John Poole said:

“Castlemartin Training Area provides essential training opportunities for large scale exercises, such as this, which support the training of military personnel from multiple units. We remain grateful to the local population for their continued support.”

Pictured are 2 Royal Anglian Foxhound vehicles conducting both static and mobile ranges with the General-Purpose Machine Gun. Members of 2nd Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment (2 R Anglian) take part in Exercise Primed Poacher at Castlemartin Ranges. Pembrokeshire, Wales. The soldiers of 2 R Anglians conducted a mounted life fire tactical training (LFTT) range package in preparation of Operation NEWCOMBE, Mail. Within the package soldiers progressed through a series of shoots, including static, firing while moving and also a night firing serial. The Foxhound platform replaced the Snatch Land Rover vehicle in order to improve protection of personnel against improvised explosive devices (IED’s) The Foxhound is at the cutting edge of protected patrol vehicle technology and provides unprecedented levels of blast protection for its size and weight against the threats faced by troops in Afghanistan. However, this is an agile and versatile vehicle that will be a mainstay in the Army for years to come.
Soldiers from 2 Royal Anglian taking part in Exercise Primed Poacher from a Foxhound vehicle at Castlemartin Training Area (Crown Copyright) (UK Ministry of Defence 2021)

The Defence Training Estate plays a vital role in providing a safe place to train ensuring our Armed Forces are prepared and ready to deploy on operations at home and abroad. Castlemartin Training Area is managed by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, supported by Landmarc Support Services, which provides the facilities for the delivery of military training.

The public can find out more about these critical training exercises by visiting the GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) website and searching ‘Castlemartin firing notices’.