Exercise PACIFIC KHUKRI 18, is a seven week, Light Role Infantry Company Group Overseas Training Exercise held in Tekapo Military Training Area, New Zealand. The exercise is being conducted by A Coy 2 Royal Gurkha Rifles.
New Zealand and specifically Tekapo Training Area provides the company with the ideal location to test itself both professionally and physically in a challenging environment. It also allows a rifle company to utilise the full suite of battalion Fire Support and reconnaissance assets in a number of complex and challenging scenarios. It also provides the ideal environment in which to work closely with the NZDF, who continually play a major part in the exercise.
The Royal Gurkha Rifles have a long established relationship with both 2nd/1st Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment and the township of Tekapo. In its current form Exercise Pacific Kukhri has been conducted in Tekapo every second year for the last twenty years. As a result the regiment has established a close bond with the local residents, with many of the soldiers having been here several times. It is the shared love of everything outdoors that contributes to bond, which only grows stronger with every deployment.
All Gurkha soldiers are recruited in Nepal. The Royal Gurkha Rifles currently have a jungle role Battalion permanently based in Brunei and a Light Role Battalion in the UK as part of 16 Air Assault Brigade. The Royal Gurkha Rifles was formed on 1 July 1994, after amalgamation of four Gurkha Regiments, 2 GR, 6 GR, 7 GR and 10 GR.