Royal Tank Regiment Battlegroup prepares for Operation Cabrit in Estonia


As reported on the British Ministry of Defence's website, the Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) Battlegroup (BG) has been preparing for a deployment to Estonia at the British Army’s Sennelager Training Centre in northern Germany. 750 soldiers are involved in the Operation Cabrit rehearsals ahead of the next British-led NATO Battlegroup to go to Estonia in September.
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Warrior armoured infantry fighting vehicle of C Company, Royal Welsh (Picture source: British MoD)


The BG comprises of RTR’s Dreadnought Squadron, equipped with Challenger 2 Main Battle Tank, C Company of the Royal Welsh, equipped with Warrior armoured infantry fighting vehicles in addition to elements of the Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers, Royal Army Medical Corps and the Royal Logistic Corps.

The demanding exercises were an arduous mix of simulation, live-firing (day and night) and field training exercises involving armour, infantry, artillery, engineers and a whole range of supporting capabilities fixed together to develop the level of competencies, capabilities and integration.

Brigadier Paddy Ginn, Commander 20 Armoured Infantry Brigade - The Iron Fist - said: “My Brigade is also the Force Generation HQ for Op CABRIT deployments. The British contribution to Op Cabrit has just got better and better as time has gone on. We are now on the seventh rotation and preparing the eighth protection package. The ‘beauty’ of this exercise is that we have the ability to stop, reset, go again. That’s what training in combined arms manoeuvre warfare gives you. That’s when the real mastery will come.”

Lieutenant Colonel Simon Worth, Commanding Officer RTR said: “The real value of Sennelager is that it closely reflects the operating environment that we would expect to operate on in Estonia and therefore, for us, it provides an excellent kind of dry run rehearsal that will take us to where we need to be.",

The 2016 NATO Summit in Warsaw set the conditions for the establishment of an enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland to strengthen Euro-Atlantic security.

Operation Cabrit is the name of the UK operational deployment to Estonia where British troops are leading a multinational battlegroup as part of the enhanced Forward Presence (eFP). The eFP in the Baltic States is a deployment of robust, multinational, combat-ready forces to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, on a persistent, rotational basis. British personnel rotate on a continuous basis alongside Danish, French, and host nation Estonian forces.


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The demanding exercises were an arduous mix of simulation, live-firing (day and night) and field training exercises involving armour, infantry, artillery, engineers and a whole range of supporting capabilities fixed together to develop the level of competencies, capabilities and integration (Picture source: British MoD)