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War in the West Country

EXERCISE EAGLES STRIKE 05 - Words by Rich Pittman, with additional photography by Lee Howard, Andy Bond and Neil Jones. Additional info by Richard Cliff and Morley Lester.

The South West of England has just played host to a major 16 Air Assault Brigade (16 AAB) exercise, which took place between Dartmoor and Salisbury Plain between 16 - 27 May. 'Eagles Strike 05', involving large numbers of Army and RAF units, had as its main aim the validation of 9 Regiment Army Air Corps with the Apache AH1 helicopter as the initial Aviation Battle Group. This report gives just a very small insight into part of a massive exercise involving a total of some 3,500 troops, 1,500 vehicles and up to forty-four helicopters.

The exercise, the first of this size in seven years, got underway over the weekend of 14 – 16 May with the participating aircraft deploying to RAF St Mawgan, Cornwall. Soon afterwards, on the evening of Wednesday 18 May, Dartmoor was 'attacked' with aircraft using Eaglescott airfield in North Devon as a Forward Air Refuelling Point (FARP).

The enemy 'Hinds' and 'Hips' (in reality Gazelle and Lynx aircraft) were initially stationed for the week at RNAS Merryfield, Yeovilton's satellite airfield near Ilminster, Somerset.

Between Friday 20 and Saturday 21 May the Apache AH1s, occasionally using Chivenor in North Devon, attacked the 'enemy' at Merryfield. A large battle developed and eventually saw the Apaches sending the 'enemy' packing to Keevil airfield in Wiltshire. Hercules C5s also used Yeovilton for trooping movements on 20 May.

With Merryfield now all to themselves, the 'allies' soon packed the base full of army equipment - around 2,800 troops and helicopters. On Sunday 22 May, 16 AAB held an open afternoon for the locals by way of thanks for putting up with the noise and disruption caused by the exercise. Unfortunately for those who attended the weather was poor, but nevertheless some of us did get a rare opportunity to sit in a Apache!

Monday 23 and Tuesday 24 May found the Apaches working just after dusk, much to the annoyance of myself and Andy Bond who had spent the day patiently waiting for some action to begin.

Wednesday 25 May proved to be very busy with a fair amount of Chinook and Merlin movements (callsign 'Goldfish') in support of the exercise. The 'allies' were due to mount an attack on Keevil and later the training village of Imber on Salisbury Plain, although this cannot, as yet, be confirmed.

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