SOLDIERS from 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards (The Welsh Cavalry) have completed a five-day live-firing exercise on the Castlemartin ranges.

Exercise Pashtun Tempest involved more than 100 soldiers from the regiment operating the new Husky and Foxhound armoured vehicles, to prepare for a potential summer tour to Afghanistan – the final tour that British troops will be involved in.

Lieutenant Colonel William Davies, Commanding Officer for the QDG, said: “We’ve got more than 100 soldiers training here this week. We’ll have a couple of roles on tour and, should we assume those roles, one in particular would involve us working closely with the Afghan National Army

“It will be a very interesting experience witnessing the closing days and months of a campaign that has been going on for more than a decade. It will be very different to previous tours we’ve been on and in historical terms it’s a significant moment.”

A summer tour would mark the QDG’s third deployment on Operation Herrick in Afghanistan since 2008.

“Everyone will be looking forward to it but it’s not without trepidation,” said Lt Col Williams.

“Afghanistan is not for the faint-hearted and there are potentially bad things that can happen but we’re doing a lot of training to mitigate against that and keep the threat to a minimum.”

The Castlemartin range allowed soldiers to fire their personal weapons accurately before progressing to more complicated shoots, culminating in more complex scenarios where soldiers in section, troop and squadron-sized groupings undertake live-firing manoeuvres with support from mortars and airborne assets.