CCF Royal Navy cadets try controlled‑fire target paintballing

The Royal Navy section spent this week conducting a hybrid exercise blending compartment‑clearing principles with controlled‑fire target paintballing at school. With six “compartments,” each containing its own set of instructions and intelligence, half the cadets operated as the control element, issuing updates and tasking over VHF, while the other half worked as the armed clearance teams moving carefully through the lane. The volume of information, riddles, partial reports, ambiguous clues and the occasional red herring kept the teams thinking hard throughout. The fact that the prize (a stash of sweets) was sitting quietly in my car beside them the entire time only added to the amusement as they spent several hours working this out the hard way.

Our targets, which began a dignified grey, were transformed into a vivid orange by the end of the session. Radio antenna masts, suspicious marker posts and armed “hostiles” were all located and (sometimes swiftly!) neutralised without a single cadet being hit. Their persistence was acknowledged as they searched through brambles and undergrowth for key intel, feeding findings back via VHF to their control team to piece together the final location of the rewards.

Cadets also got a good taste of processing frantic instructions under pressure as they moved to neutralise the hostile targets, yet they worked methodically throughout, showing composure (mostly), communication (sometimes) and leadership in the thick of it before finishing tired, slightly scratched and faintly triumphant.

Dr Thomas Brown - Section Commander Royal Navy CCF

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