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British sas9/27/2023 ![]() Some units are attempting to fill the capability void Paratroopers ‘mill’ on P-Company, Gurkhas train in Tae Kwan Do during basic training and interested unit leaders run their own in-unit Combatives training. In general, physical training programs can be simplified as: training for advancing to battle with weighted marches and running training for operating in the combat zone with high intensity circuit training, obstacle crossing, strength and conditioning training in the hand-to-hand fighting zone, nothing less bayonet training and Combat PT. Other than Combat PT, the Army’s current physical training policy broadly ignores fighting in the hand-to-hand fighting zone. Additionally, it has never been fully integrated into the Army Physical training program and has contributed little to overall combat ethos. This limited system has fallen well short of its original design and is inadequate for the contemporary operating environment, offering only basic techniques, a very limited syllabus and no progression or competition. During internal security operations in Northern Ireland soldiers were taught restraint and arrest techniques and the last decade has seen the introduction of an Army ‘ Combat PT’ Combatives syllabus. His system was taught to all Commando, Parachute and Home Guard forces and laid the foundations of modern western Combatives systems. Fairbairn created a combatives system based on his experiences as a policeman fighting street gangs in Shanghai. The British Army has a strong history of Combatives training. It is here that they forge their understanding of the true nature of physical-human interaction in warfare. It is here that the winning combat ethos is born in a Soldier’s heart and mind through the physical experience of realistic and challenging training. It is here in this zone that soldiers have to find and learn self-confidence, self-discipline and that quitting is not an option. It is in the hand-to-hand zone of developing the combat ethos that the most important psychological development and combat mental conditioning occurs. Battlefield experience from Mosul has shown that urban operations squeeze combatants together into heavily congested and highly kinetic conflict areas forcing them into a zone where hand-to-hand fighting becomes necessary, further increasing the demands upon modern forces to have a battle-winning combat ethos built upon an effective Combatives system. ![]() The growing and increasingly popular assertion that warfare is now a remote and dislocated activity is partly true, but with growing urbanisation and growing populations in urban environment any Army can find itself forced to fight in an increasingly close urban environment. Here in hand-to-hand combat is where combat ethos is developed and nurtured in the hearts and minds of an Army’s most critical capability, it’s Soldiers.įor too long now the Army has failed to service to this basic capability, with personnel deployed on increasingly complex, varied and isolated operations both at home and abroad the requirement for a scalable and effective Combatives system has never been more stark. It is this interaction between humans in conflict which forms the nucleus of the combat ethos this interaction is at its most refined, pure and powerful when trained and conditioned to the full range of physical contact in the hand-to-hand fighting zone. Clausewitz is ever at pains to emphasise this critical but increasingly overlooked reality and in our contemporary, technology-oriented world we are often distracted from this most fundamental of facts. While the character of conflict continues to evolve, the nature and spirit of warfare remains constant a fierce and destructive interaction between humans. The heart of the British Army’s Combat ethos is broken and it needs an effective Combatives fighting system to help repair it. Of all the factors, which make for success in battle, the spirit of the warrior is the most decisive.
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