The British Army and the Kingdom of Sweden are very close partners,
and our Army to Army relationship is both very fruitful
and worthwhile to both nations.
What we've seen with the deployment of Ajax, 3 Rangers
and the training for the Royal School of Artillery to support Archer.
This demonstrates the depth of our relationship,
both operators and also in capability areas
I've been driving the Ajax armoured vehicle for a year now, it feels more modern,
it's like going from an old car just to, like, a newer car.
The engine just feels better underneath you,
the steering handles better.
it's a bit bigger, but it's still just as capable.
Everything that we wanted it to do, it has done.
I've been Gunner on the Ajax now since July.
So, yeah, a little while.
But it's been my first opportunity to really get hands on with it.
Before this was my training on simulators
This climate obviously comes with its own problems.
However, the the weapon systems have performed
a lot better than what I think we all thought they would.
There are obviously still slight teething issues, because it's quite a new vehicle.
However, it was... it's been really positive.
it's been good to work alongside the Swedish over here.
It’s challenging because of the weather and also it's a new equipment to learn.
I've been learning the archer.
Now it's not only for... to be the number one.
Also, I've learned how to be operator and also to be the driver.
Those are the three things you learn inside the cabin.
That's the course I've been doing for the for the last few weeks.
The need for the train the trainer package, is because the gun is so complex, even for us.
Our course is about 14 weeks for the Swedish instructors, at least.
You need to understand in depth how the Archer works
and also how it functions so you don't get unnecessary faults.
the first time the British soldiers have done a live fire was two weeks ago.
And that went well.
They did the entire ammunition replenishment and also the live fire
with the help from the Swedish instructors.
And now they're doing a live fire all by themselves.
It went well.
So we're here in Sweden working with the Norrland Dragoon
Regiment, a unit that we have a newfound relationship with
and this is a great example of where we can learn a huge amount
from our partners and demonstrate our ability to be interoperable against similar threats.
So the Ranger Regiment role in combat operations is to operate
in hostile territory, potentially behind enemy lines,
finding and disrupting enemy high value targets.
This involves small teams being able to operate for long periods of time,
sustain themselves, and then be able to find the enemy and strike them where required.
The environment is a place where your basic skills and drills really need to be on point.
And if they're not, you're going to suffer, especially in small teams
as we work in the Ranger Regiment, not only do
your basics have to be on point, you also have to be above that
because you need to make sure that the people left and right of you,
are also doing the same and look after people.
So buddy, buddy skills are pretty essential out here in the cold.
Back home in the UK, when it gets cold,
you've got a good few minutes before you need to start worrying,
Otherwise here it's, within 5 minutes you start to get white spots on your nose.
And for me, my beard started to freeze over, hypothermia sets in really, really fast here,
so you've got to be really aware of how cold you can get,
how fast that can happen.
So for me, it's been a case of,
learning the hard way, unfortunately, about how cold it can get.