The Mountain Leader Training Cadre is a training element of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Royal Marines The Royal Marines provide the United Kingdom's amphibious warfare, amphibious special operations capable commando force, one of the :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, five fighting arms of the Royal Navy, a Company (military unit), company str ...

which provides instruction in

mountain warfare Mountain warfare or alpine warfare is warfare in mountains or similarly rough terrain. The term encompasses military operations affected by the terrain, hazards, and factors of combat and movement through rough terrain, as well as the strategies ...

arctic warfare Cold-weather warfare, also known as cold-region warfare, arctic warfare or winter warfare, encompasses military operations affected by snow, ice, Mud season, thawing conditions, or cold, both on land and at sea, as well as the strategies and t ...

, cold weather survival and operations, and cliff assault. The cadre has a permanent staff of mountain and arctic warfare instructors and trains mountain leaders for employment in the formations of the corps. The cadre is part of the Mountain Leader and

ISTAR ISTAR stands for Military intelligence, intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance. In its macroscopic sense, #ISTAR, ISTAR is a practice that links several battlefield functions together to assist a combat force in employ ...

Company within Specialist Wing of the

Commando Training Centre Royal Marines Commando Training Centre Royal Marines (CTCRM) is the principal military training centre for the Royal Marines. It is situated near the villages of Lympstone and Exton, between the city of Exeter, and the town of Exmouth in Devon, England. Hi ...

and is based in

Lympstone Lympstone is a village and civil parish in East Devon in the English county of Devon. It has a population of 2,100. There is a harbour on the estuary of the River Exe, lying at the outlet of Wotton Brook between cliffs of red breccia.

History

During the 1950s the Royal Marine Cliff Assault Wing was formed to train marines in rock climbing and cliff assault techniques. Elite training of Cliff Leaders in the late 1950s required rocky landings from various small craft (kayaks, Zodiacs and other motorized assault craft) often in heavy seas onto the Cornish coast, and rapid tactical ascents and descent of the vertical faces. This skill set was necessary for exposing all trainees during the last week of the commando (green beret) course. Instructors publicly demonstrated (e.g. at Navy Days) commando methods of abseiling and high-speed fixed rope descent from clifftop grapple-hook anchors. These would typically include the 'run-down' method (a simple face down arm wrap, sometimes demonstrated on high urban buildings, and essential when carrying small arms) and the 'front swallow' and other dangerous slides down a fixed rope. These demonstrations were discontinued after Captain Antony Easterbrook, a 31-year-old member of the Cadre, fell to his death during a display in

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as the Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eig ...

in 1960. The Cliff Assault Wing became the Cliff Assault Troop in 1962, the Reconnaissance Leader Troop in 1965 and the Mountain And Arctic Warfare Cadre in 1970. It moved to Stonehouse Barracks at that time. The Mountain and Arctic Warfare Cadre featured in the 1985

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It p ...

documentary series ''Behind the Lines''. The series followed the progress of 25 prospective members of the cadre as they endure survival training on a

Hebridean The Hebrides ( ; , ; ) are the largest archipelago in the United Kingdom, off the west coast of the Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner and Outer Hebrides. These isla ...

island (

Islay Islay ( ; , ) is the southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. Known as "The Queen of the Hebrides", it lies in Argyll and Bute just south west of Jura, Scotland, Jura and around north of the Northern Irish coast. The island's cap ...

) and

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

conditions in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The cadre was renamed the Mountain Leader Training Cadre in the early 1990s.

Courses

ML1 is open only to Royal Marines who have completed Senior Command Course. Training similarly takes 8 months, with candidates instructing ML2 training under supervision before being assessed by experienced trainers instructing in regular units. ML2 is open to

Subalterns A subaltern () is a primarily British military term for a junior officer. Literally meaning "subordinate", subaltern is used to describe commissioned officers below the rank of captain and generally comprises the various grades of lieutenant. U ...

and

Other Ranks Other ranks (ORs) in the Royal Marines (RM), the British Army, and the Royal Air Force (RAF), along with the navies, armies, and air forces of many other Commonwealth countries and Ireland, are those personnel who are not commissioned officers, bu ...

who have completed Junior Command Course. The course is 8 months long and takes place over the autumn and winter months in the

and

. Training includes rock climbing, survival, Resistance to Interrogation (RTI), patrolling and raiding, snow and ice climbing and cold weather survival. ML3 was a 9-week course open to all levels, which has been replaced by the shorter Combat Recce Operator course, which allows individuals to go on to serve in the Commando Unit Recce Troops, Surveillance Reconnaissance Squadron, and

Special Forces Support Group The Special Forces Support Group (SFSG) is a special forces unit of the British Armed Forces. The SFSG was formed officially on 3 April 2006 to provide support to the Special Air Service, the Special Boat Service and the Special Reconnaissance R ...

References

{{British Commando Forces Royal Marines training Military units and formations of the United Kingdom in the Falklands War Royal Marine formations and units Survival training

History

Courses

See also

References