The SCBC Experience

At the beginning of January, I attended Section Commanders’ Battle Course in Brecon. To prepare for SCBC I had to ensure my soldiering, military knowledge, navigation, and fitness were up to a high standard. I did this by getting myself on different courses and opportunities that were made available to me by my chain of command in the run-up to starting SCBC. A good example of this was competing in Cambrian patrol, which provided me with an opportunity to test myself on a soldiering level while also pushing myself physically.

Once my knowledge was in a good place, I concentrated on my Fitness and Navigation before attending the pre-course in Scotland. The pre-course is designed to teach you everything you need to know before attending SCBC. It's a two-week course and even though it’s quite a fast pace, it’s a great learning phase before attending SCBC and also tests you on your ability to do your current job role as well as one up.

On completing the pre-course and passing it you should then attend SCBC. The course is split into two main parts. The first part is Skill at Arms (SAA) and the second part is Tactics. Both halves of the course are 2 months long.

In the First Two weeks of SAA, you will do DTTT. This is a teaching course put in place before attending the actual SAA part of the course to ensure that everyone attending can deliver lessons. Once you have passed DTTT you will move onto SAA. This is the part of the course which qualifies you to promote, so it is important to try and get the best grade possible. The best way to make sure you are prepared for SAA is to make sure you nail the weapon drills before attending SAA, that way you will be able to concentrate on your lesson and your lesson plan rather than focussing on learning weapons drills too. After passing SAA you will become an SAA instructor meaning you will be able to teach weapon drills as well as take weapon handling tests. Since passing SAA I have implemented this by teaching members of my Coy how to use the FAMAS in preparation for our exercise in France. The final part of SAA is ranges you will get every qualification apart from the A qual.

The First week of tactics is mostly classroom based you will do a military knowledge test and will also get lessons as well as conducting a nav ex to make sure you’re not going into tactics blind. Through the course, you will do 5km/10km/15km/25km tabs as well as doing an RFT fitness test. You will then do Attack week 1 and Attack week 2, these are where you will be taught tactics and how to take a section attack/platoon attack. You will then do Patrol week which is where you will be taught to take and give orders as well as leading recce's and fighting patrols and potentially an ambush. During patrol week you will be mentally and physically tested due to the amount of fitness you will be doing as well as the sleep deprivation you will endure. After patrol week you will do complex terrain, this is a fun opportunity to learn new skills and drills and learn how to act as a section commander in areas we don’t work in as much as we should. Finally, you will do Final Ex before returning to camp for admin.

The course overall was very well taught and as long as you are fit and ready to learn a lot you will enjoy it, and get the most out of it.