The British Army is modernising, and Exercise Viking Strike, held in Otterburn and Kielder Forest on 6 July, gave a glimpse of the latest technology being used by front-line soldiers.
A battalion built for the drone age
1st Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment (1 R ANGLIAN) is set to become one of the Army's first Near Surface Infantry Battalions. Unlike traditional infantry units, these battalions won't just rely on soldiers moving across the ground. Instead, they will specialise in drones and other unmanned systems to find and defeat enemies in the air and across the electronic spectrum — an area known as the "drone zone."
Each rifle platoon will include drone pilots who can gather intelligence from the front line. A dedicated company will also operate larger drones capable of spotting targets and launching one-way attack drones — sometimes called "kamikaze" drones — which carry explosive charges and destroy whatever they hit. Exercise Viking Strike brought all these capabilities together, allowing the battalion to hit more targets, faster, and from greater distances.
"We go from finding and detecting using drones to targeting and striking in a matter of minutes. We understand the battlefield more now than we ever did."
Commanding Officer Lieutenant Colonel Nick McGinley said: "What we're here to do is to improve our ability to find and strike targets in the most realistic replication of Finnish terrain using remote and autonomous systems to dominate the battlefield."
From sensor to strike in minutes
Key information was collected using Anduril's Ghost X drone — equipped with cameras and infrared sensors — as well as ARX's Gereon ground vehicles, which can operate far forward without putting soldiers at risk. This data was sent instantly to the battalion's command post and shared across the unit using the ATAK system — essentially a combat version of a smartphone worn on the chest.
Major Paul Machniki explained: "This shortens the kill chain. We go from finding and detecting using drones to targeting and striking in a matter of minutes. We understand the battlefield more now than we ever did."
Training for Europe’s front line
The war in Ukraine has changed how modern battles are fought, and the creation of these new battalions is a direct response to those lessons. Otterburn and Kielder Forest were chosen for this exercise because they closely resemble the heavily forested landscape of Finland. If conflict were to break out in Europe, 1 R ANGLIAN, part of the UK's 11 Brigade, which is partnered with Finland's Kainuu Brigade, would be ready to defend Finland's 1,340km border with Russia.
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