Dartmoor Training Area

 
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A soldier during training on Dartmoor
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Military Use Overview

History of Military Use

Military Training

Land Used

Management

 

 

 

Military Use Overview

The Armed Forces train on Dartmoor to experience the extensive, remote, rugged moors and the changeable weather.  This provides the soldier, sailor and airman with some of the most challenging environments in the United Kingdom in which to hone their skills.  Such training helps to develop self confidence, trust in colleagues and equipment, and inspire the qualities of teamwork and leadership that instil and maintain operational effectiveness on the modern battlefield.

Dartmoor is particularly suited for the training of light forces; those that deploy in low ground pressure vehicle, by helicopter, by parachute or on their feet, and for personnel from medium and heavy forces practicing operations away from their vehicles. Because of the boggy terrain, Dartmoor is not suitable for tanks or heavy tracked vehicles.

Dartmoor provides a valuable training area to the following regional military units, where it is used for training new recruits, individuals and teams up to brigade level.

  • Royal Naval Base at Devonport;
  • HMS Raleigh (the Royal Navy’s main shore training establishment) at Torpoint,
  • Brittania Royal Naval College at Dartmouth;
  • Royal Naval Air Stations at Culdrose and Yeovilton;
  • The units of 3 Commando Brigade Royal Marines in Plymouth, Taunton and Barnstaple;
  • The Commando Training Centre at Lympstone;
  • 43 Wessex Brigade and its units based in the South West; and
  • The Royal Air Force Regiment and the Joint Survival School at St Mawgan.

In the same way that units based in the South West occasionally travel further afield to train elsewhere, so other units from across the UK travel to Dartmoor to benefit from its unique features and facilities.

 

 

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