PARADE ground drills are being dropped for trainee Royal Marines. Instead of square-bashing for yelling sergeants, elite commando course recruits will get 60 hours more weapons training. Half of the drills currently carried out will be axed as chiefs aim to create a cutting edge fighting force. Regimental Sgt Major Dave Young — the top […]
PARADE ground drills are being dropped for trainee Royal Marines.
Instead of square-bashing for yelling sergeants, elite commando course recruits will get 60 hours more weapons training.
Half of the drills currently carried out will be axed as chiefs aim to create a cutting edge fighting force.
Regimental Sgt Major Dave Young — the top enlisted man in 3 Commando Brigade — insisted: “We don’t march into a battlefield anymore.
“There is still a place for drill but we don’t need to do as much.
“At the end of the day, a Marine still needs to put a dagger in their mouth and crawl through a ditch.
“We’ve decided to give more time to learn sophisticated weapons systems they will have to use if they go to war.”
Royal Marines are also due to trial jet suits for storming enemy ships.
“It raises questions over whether the Army will follow, as forces adapt to modern warfare demands.
A Navy source said: “We must ensure our commandos can master the latest battlefield technology and be match-fit for the future.”
Four commando tests to pass the 32-week course will be unchanged, culminating in a 30-mile yomp across Dartmoor in under nine hours.
The Sun revealed how 100 Royal Marines with hi-tech kit defeated 1,500 US Marines in an urban warfare exercise.
A source said Army recruits spent less than five per cent of boot camp on drill.
