Our new recruits will be trained to defend Ukraine

THOUSANDS of recruits who join the Army next month will have special training so they are ready to deploy to Ukraine as soon as there is a ceasefire.

- By Marco Giannangeli

Under a proposed Peace Support Operation, UK forces will work with at least six other “coalition of the willing” nations to train Ukrainians in the west of the country while providing deterrence against Russia in the east.

To prepare for deployment, training is being beefed up in Britain to meet battlefield threats and new ways of operating.

September is traditionally the Army’s biggest intake, with around 1,600 rookies due to commence phase one training next month following the summer break.

The UK infantry force will be drawn from 16 Air Assault Brigade.

At the Catterick and Pirbright bases, trainees will learn trench warfare — unused for almost 100 years — and be given instruction in staging and defending drone strikes.

And instead of company attacks of 100 soldiers with machine guns, troops will operate in strike teams of six, using night vision and thermal imaging to locate enemy drones and indirect weapons in order to neutralise them.

Every soldier will learn to use drones that can hover above and scan the ground ahead.

New ways of fighting were showcased at the British Army Expo in Edinburgh, which ended yesterday.