Soldiers need to go undergo military exercise training in the Czech Republic before deployment to Afghanistan. Gunner Luis Hulyer, an 18 year old soldier from Plumstead, who joined the army in 2008, has been training as a signaler. A signaler records and relays target information for heavy artillery AS90 guns.

Hulyer is part of Germany based 26 Regiment Royal Artillery. Almost 2,000 British soldiers’ men and women have attended the three-week Exercise called Flying Rhino. Flying Rhino was the British Army’s biggest multinational Air Land integration exercise lasting three weeks. The exercise includes: fast jets, helicopter and self-propelled artillery. Hulyer said; “The training here is good and we are preparing well. Over the coming year we will do a lot of exercises preparing for our mission. It’s just over a year before I deploy to Afghanistan but I wouldn’t say I am worried. But as it gets closer there is a chance I could wake up one morning with a few nerves.”

During the exercise, Hulyer was firing harmlessly onto a mocked-up enemy position on a hill in the Czech countryside. The planner at the headquarters (nearly 200 miles away) have coordinated the attacks. They use electronically generated virtual world to see their targets through computer monitors.