Soldiers from the British Army and the Royal Army of Oman have completed a two-week long training exercise, Khanjar Oman, to hone their warfighting skills.
Held between 3-14 February, the exercise was carried out in Ras Madrakah, which is the Omani-British joint training area in Duqm.
This was the first main training event conducted as part of the British Army’s four-month long deployment to Oman.
During this joint activity, soldiers from the two nations operated together to build a mock assault on an enemy deployed in an urban area.
It allowed the participating soldiers to assess their capabilities to train in complex scenarios in different terrains such as plains, mountains, deserts, and wadi systems.
Simultaneously, the troops also exchanged and honed their soldiering skills and tactics in austere environments to protect themselves against diverse threats.
Another objective of exercise Khanjar Oman was to prepare the British soldiers to take up the Nato’s Very High Readiness Joint Task Force in January 2024.
The Royal Anglian Regiment 2nd Battalion battlegroup commander lieutenant colonel Ben Hawes said: “Since March last year, the focus of our training has been to ensure that we are ready to fight against a peer enemy force.
“My troops have been absolutely put through their paces. Everything that our peer enemies could do to us, has been done to us. I’ve operated with every single one of my radio frequencies jammed, I’ve operated with no GPS, I’ve operated at night for long periods of time; we’ve done training serial after training serial.
“This is about our ability to operate and sustain an operation against an enemy that has the same, or maybe even greater capabilities than we do.”
