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SZCZECIN, Poland - During exercise Tallinn Dawn, the U.K. Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) has been preparing for a deployment to Estonia at the British Army's Sennelager Training Centre in northern Germany.

750 soldiers are involved in the rehearsals ahead of the next British-led NATO Battlegroup to go to Estonia in September.  The Battlegroup comprises of RTR's Dreadnought Squadron, equipped with Challenger 2 Main Battle Tank, C Company of the Royal Welsh, equipped with Warrior armoured infantry fighting vehicles in addition to elements of the Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers, Royal Army Medical Corps and the Royal Logistic Corps.

British soldiers of Royal Tank Regiment, 20th Armoured Bde, during excise Tallinn Dawn / Photo by British Army

Exercise Tallinn Dawn saw the Royal Tank Regiment's heavy armoured equipment operating in the field / Photo by British Army 

The demanding exercises were an arduous mix of simulation, live-firing (day and night) and field training exercises involving armour, infantry, artillery, engineers and a whole range of supporting capabilities fixed together to develop the level of competencies, capabilities and integration.

BG Paddy Ginn, Commander 20 Armoured Infantry Brigade said: "My Brigade is also the Force Generation Headquarters for Operation CABRIT (Op CABRIT)* deployments. The British contribution to Op CABRIT has just got better and better as time has gone on. We are now on the seventh rotation and preparing the eighth protection package.

The beauty of this exercise is that we have the ability to stop, reset, go again. That's what training in combined arms manoeuvre warfare gives you. That's when the real mastery will come, Brigadier Ginn concluded.

It's great to get the experience of working together with other bits of the Army, seeing it all come together. I am looking forward to my first deployment later in the year. 

* Operation CABRIT is the name of the British Army's operational deployment to the Baltic States and Poland as part of NATO's enhanced Forward Presence

British soldiers of Royal Tank Regiment, 20th Armoured Bde, during excise Tallinn Dawn / Photo by British Army

Exercise Tallinn Dawn saw the Royal Tank Regiment's heavy armoured equipment operating in the field / Photo by British Army