Army Firepower 2009!
Last month, an email landed in my inbox inviting Realise Design to go along to the Army Firepower Demonstration. The demo was billed as an opportunity to see the entire range of weapon systems used by the British Army firing live at targets within a couple of kilometres of the viewing area.
Of course, we accepted the invitation and went as guests of CESO(A) – the health and safety team. We had worked with them last year to produce an exciting new logo to front their worldwide safety campaigns.
The day started with an exclusive hands on sessions with the equipment at a static display. We were able to shoulder the Army’s brand new sniper rifle and climb around on tanks, a prototype version of the new Jackal II (an armoured, fast attack vehicle) and a number of combat engineering vehicles.
It's not only designers that use engineering tools...
It was refreshing to see design at work in it's most functional form.
We were then moved into the grandstand where we watched the 90 minute Firepower demonstration. The demo consisted of 7 sections – infantry, mounted infantry, armour, artillery, combat engineering, air support and a grand finale.
Each section gave a 10 minute session where the soldiers would take centre stage and proceed to blast targets to the front with the appropriate weaponry. The grand finale brought all these elements together in an action packed battlefield scenario.
A Challenger II tank about to obliterate a burger van!
An Apache attack helicopter squaring up to the spectator area.
A low pass by a Tornado - one of the most earth shattering things I've ever experienced!
We have to thank our good friend Chris Sheppard from Entec for providing us with images of the event. All photographs are copyright © Chris Sheppard.
Ed
could you please supply me with the dates for any firepower demos that are in the uk this year.would the tickets be available to the general public, many thanks
Hi Stuart
We were invited by someone we know in the Army’s health & safety department. I got the impression that it’s invitation only. I know my father in law was invited because he is on the PCC of a village next to Salisbury Plain and the army likes to explain to the locals what all the noise has been about!
Anyway, short answer – not sure, I will see what I can find out.
Hi there i have hours of film from the fire power demos on sailsbury plain,I was ex Guards and used to fire the GPMG SF on the demos ..if you would like some film free just tell me where to send you a disc to ..no probs