A soldier reading a map with a headlamp

In Pictures: 150 soldiers take part in survival competitions

Soldiers from 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards have been training competitively in Northumberland.

Putting their fitness, military and stamina skills to the test, the troops undergo competitive survival training. This includes knife handling and sharpening, building improvised shelters, finding and treating water for drinking, lighting fires.

They’ve also been catching, preparing and cooking food, including chicken, rabbits, fish and….

Troops cooking food over a fire

… crickets.

A soldier eating a cricket

The competitions varie: completing a net to catch fish would award the troops with one fish each which needed to be cooked over an open fire.

Teams cooking on campfires

Following the lessons, each four-person team headed out on a 45 km patrol carrying only essential survival equipment. Each team had up to 36 hours to complete the patrol and would pass six checkpoints and four challenge points along the route.

At each challenge point, there was be a Survive, Evade, Resist, Extract (SERE)-related task in which teams will put into practice their newly-learnt skills.

More pictures from the survival training, including wood cutting, map reading and more

Find out where else the UK Armed Forces are deployed here 👇