Deep in the dust and sand of the Omani desert, Britain is training for war at 3am.
Monstrous tanks and other vehicles churn up billowing clouds as they rumble along in searing 40-degree heat.
Infantrymen in full combat gear swiftly deploy to face the “enemy”.
At sea a huge Navy task force has entered Omani waters while RAF jets have made their way to the Gulf State.
This week the Sunday People joined the Armed Forces in Oman on the biggest UK military exercise in 17 years.
Named Saif Sareea 3, or Swift Sword 3, it involves 5,500 British personnel, 200 armoured vehicles, six warships and eight Typhoon fighters.
War games in one of the world’s harshest environments have one motive – to ensure the UK is battle-ready to join international allies to tackle threats posed by the likes of Russia and ISIS.
Strategists are mimicking so-called “peer-plus” military heavyweights – like Vladimir Putin’s army – so they can counter the world’s most elite forces.
From Goodall Garrison at Camp Shafa, Brigadier Zac Stenning, commander of 1 UK Armoured Infantry Brigade, said: “We face many threats, this is an uncertain world.
“As the Army, we want to be able to offer choices to our political leaders and UK citizens that we are capable of acting.
“It’s very hard to predict where the next crisis is but we want to ready for it. We train our army for a variety of different threats across the world.”
The joint operation with the Omani forces comes as the UK faces a growing threat from Russia in the wake of the Novichok poisoning scandal.
Earlier this year our Services head, Chief of the Defence Staff General Nick Carter, said Putin’s forces were the biggest threat to our way of life in years.
This week a four-strong Russian hacking team was arrested outside the world’s chemical weapons watchdog in Holland — while attempting to sabotage the Salisbury probe.
And while Britain wages information warfare on the Kremlin, Brigadier Stenning, the commander of 1 UK Armoured Infantry Brigade, said the military was keeping its eyes “wide-open” to a number of global threats.
He said: “This is an exercise in facing what we call a ‘peer plus’ opponent, rather than lesser opponents.
“We are trying to put ourselves against those that might be the best equipped, those that might have the best training and those who would give us our toughest challenge.
“Over the last two years we have looked at different threat vectors. We are growing more confident about how we might seek to confront and take down those threats as they come towards us.
“You have heard the Chief of the Defence Staff speak quite publicly now about the threat from Russia. That is a pacing threat and he has publicly stated that. We keep our eyes wide open.
“The fact is the world’s very uncertain, there are a lot of threat vectors.
“We have threats from Syria, there are crises in Africa, not necessarily purely military, as you saw British defence respond to Ebola.
“There are many challenges out there that we have got to be capable of responding to.”
The month-long war game in Oman will include training rapid reaction forces to deploy in crisis zones around the world if conflict is on the brink of erupting.
And they are working on high-tech strike brigades designed to practice 21st-century warfare, using advanced technology to topple enemies.
The Sunday People rolled out with the Mercian Regiment as they began the huge training exercise.
In the dead of night the awesome array of armoured vehicles including Warriors, Bulldogs and Trojans, thundered into life.
We also joined the Royal Tank Regiment’s Cyclops squadron in staging war games over huge swathes of desert.
Around eight miles from Camp Shafa, platoon commander Lieutenant Niall O’Malley Pearson led an attack on the “enemy” – represented by the Household Cavalry set up in a formation typically used by Putin’s forces.
Lt Pearson, 26, rounded three Warriors before speeding across the dust and sending sand spilling into the air.
And after calling “Release, release, release” on the radio a fourth vehicle thundered through the middle of the unit to attack an “enemy” Russian T72 tank.
Lt Pearson said: “When I give the ‘Release’ order, it’s brilliant, it’s like releasing a pack of dogs.”
The military outfit will travel 160 miles from the camp, at the base of the Jebel mountains near the capital Muscat, across the desert to a finish point near Duqm Port.
Meanwhile Armed Forces Minister Mark Lancaster said the relationship with the Omani forces was important as “violent extremist organisations seek to undermine stability”.
He told sailors and Royal Marines assembled on the deck of the amphibious carrier HMS Albion it proved they were able to deploy anywhere in the Gulf “if the situation demands it”.
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He said: “Saif Sareea 3 is the culmination of what proper militaries can do, the ability to deploy overseas and operate in far-flung places around the world.
“This is as much of a deterrent – it’s sending a very clear message that the UK has a military that is prepared to deploy at scale and at reach to support our allies in delivering global security.”
After visiting Iraq he also insisted that the fight against ISIS, or Daesh, was not yet over.
He said: “We are part of a 76-member coalition in the fight against Daesh.
“Whilst territorially Daesh are nearly defeated in Syria and have been territorially defeated in Iraq, that fight is not over.”
The minister went on: “For us to have this ability this is not just about counter terrorism, it’s about our visible presence here and of course it makes a contribution in countering that threat.
“It’s a very, very strong deterrent when we are able to project military power out here.”
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