POTD: SA-80 in the Falklands Onion Ranges
The Picture Of The Day takes us to The Falklands, and the infamous Onion Ranges a vast swathe of land which is used for training by the Army. It is located on a remote part of the East Falkland island.
It could be a coincidence that the pictures were taken on a cloudy day, but it looks to me like a pretty windy place, where it could rain a lot for long periods of time.
Pictured are soldiers from The Household Division operating their SA-80‘s during a live fire exercise, training thousands of miles from home.
From the caption:
Onion Range is regarded as one of the best live firing ranges used by the British Army. It is large enough to allow a platoon of soldiers (around 30 men) to conduct mock attacks using automatic fire, grenades and anti-tank missiles.
One of the toughest field exercises is the live firing that takes place at the top of Onion Range; named because the journey up there alone is enough to make your eyes water.
The soldiers set up camp on the exposed hillside, often for several weeks at a time, and the training takes place in a simulated live fire battlefield environment.
All pictures provided by the U.K. Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defence photographers (Defence Imagery).
Ex-Arctic Ranger. Competitive practical shooter and hunter with a European focus. Always ready to increase my collection of modern semi-automatics, optics, thermals and suppressors. TCCC Certified. Occasionaly seen in a 6x6 Bug Out Vehicle, always with a big smile.
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Traveling 6,000+ miles to a different hemisphere for training is a bit much isn't it? Unless, of course, they are there on a regular rotation for security purposes so the Gauchos won't be tempted to invade again. After about three weeks, those sheep are starting to look pretty good.....DAAAAAADY!
The Falkland Islands are a British possession and an unfortunate war had to be fought with Argentina to keep things that way. British military units go there as part of the military deterrence efforts but also because it's a great training area. Whilst the UK is small compared to the US, it isn't that small and we have vast and very challenging military training arras on the UK mainland in areas such as Brecon (Wales), Salisbury Plain and Otterburn (Northumberland). British military ranges are also managed to an extremely fine degree and British Army officers (and Royal Marine and RAF Regiment officers and NCOs) have to qualify to very capable levels in range management disciplines that include general small arms, mortars, anti-tank weapons etc. Do not misinterpret or try to over interpret the author's text in this article; it's a mere description of activities with few unnecessary details. The Brit military know what they're doing and they aren't in the Falkland Islands because there's nowhere to train at home or because it's considered large by UK standards. The FI is very much smaller than the UK.
Oh, and the sea trout fishing there is apparently superb.