The year continues at a pace for the 1st Battalion, the Royal Anglian Regiment, with May delivering another high-tempo month for the Vikings.
Exercise MAYAN VIKING is now in full swing and the commitments to Cyprus operational sites continue. B (Suffolk) Company with attachments from Recce Platoon and C (Essex) Company are now in the closing stages of the MAYAN VIKING final exercise. This will see the Company group tested in jungle fieldcraft and subunit operations in demanding and inhospitable terrain.
The Company group has also completed a comprehensive live-firing package that closely reflects the intensity of close-quarter combat in the jungle.
Meanwhile, the rest of C (Essex) Company has been committed to several MACA (Military Aid to Civilian Authorities) tasks in close coordination with British Forces Cyprus and the Republic of Cyprus Government.
Platoons of C (Essex) Company soldiers have deployed to Larnaca Airport in support of the UK’s evacuation of civilians from Sudan and have also assisted British Customs officials in the decontamination of vehicles after a recent outbreak of goat pox in Northern Cyprus. Concurrently to all of this, A (Norfolk) Company and D (Cambridgeshire) Company have remained committed to the Cyprus operational sites and force protection of UK Naval Support Facility in Bahrain.
