4 MERCIAN has been providing soldiers to operations for many years. Members of the Battalion have served all over the world in all the conflicts where the British Army has deployed troops.

We pride ourselves on our commitment and have sent more soldiers on operations than any other TA unit.

An operational tour for an Infantry soldier lasts up to 12 months, broken down as follows: 

• 2 weeks to mobilise at RTMC Chilwell
• 2-3 months pre-deployment training. This is to close the gap between TA and Regular soldier training, plus allow time to integrate into the unit you will deploy with
• 6 months on operations, including 12 days leave
• Up to 2 weekend decompression and demobilisation
• Post operational tour leave of up to 6 weeks

We deploy as either a formed Company or as Individual Replacements (IR). (IR means that a soldier goes to a Regular unit and is put into a platoon to work alongside Regular counterparts.) 4 MERCIAN has sent both IR and formed Companies on operations, our last deployment being Normandy Company to Afghanistan.