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3 Safe versions of a commando knife. One solid and blunted, one retracts into the handle and the third is a cut-off mounted on a body plate for an actor to wear "post stabbing".
Commandos set their sights on close-combat training
Royal Marines of 40 Commando honed their day and night-fighting skills with a week of intense training in mock towns in Kent. The Norton Manor-based commandos practised close quarters battle on special ranges at Lydd and Hythe, trying out an enhanced rifle sight to improve their already-impressive marksmanship.
Royal Marines of 40 Commando stand guard at the façade of a house on the ranges at Lydd and Hythe in Kent as Exercise Hawk – a week of close-combat training – draws to a close.
The commandos decamped from their base at Norton Manor in Somerset to the two training areas on the Channel.
The ranges at Lydd, about five miles west of Dungeness, have been used by troops for more than 150 years, while those at Hythe, a dozen miles to the east, are two centuries old and are dominated by a couple of Martello towers and Grand Redoubt, built to keep Napoleon at bay.
Some 200 years later, the ranges are in use almost daily – and have been adapted to meet the demands of today’s Armed Forces, with a mock modern-day housing estate, complete with roads, roundabouts and cars, built at both, while the Lydd ranges are strewn with wrecked old armoured vehicles.
40 Commando made full use of their week in Kent, from the annual combat marksmanship test to compound clearance and defending forward operating bases.
There was also the opportunity for the Royals to let loose with heavy weapons and each company carried out nighttime live firing.
And for the first time 40 tested the new ELCAN sight – there’s a small red cross for the aiming point – which is easier to use and better in the dark than the existing sights; troops still need to understand its capability, how to mount it on SA80 rifles and how to zero it – all of which was done in Kent.
For close quarters battle (also known as close combat or, in old parlance, hand-to-hand fighting), a separate sight is fitted on top of the ELCAN sight to allow the commandos to rapidly engage their targets.
As well as live firing, the Norton Manor men also used ‘simunition’ – simulated ammunition, which possesses the dynamics of the real thing, minus the lethality – to add an extra layer of realism to Exercise Hawk.
“40 Commando had plenty of time to practise close quarters skills and the simunition added a realistic dimension to the training,” explained Lt Dougal Loadman.
Pictured: 17 Feb 2026 - Royal Marines from 40 Commando on the ground after being inserted on a joint raid by 847 Naval Air Squadron Wildcat HMA Mk2 Helicopter at Elvegårdsmoen military training camp, Norway.
Royal Marines from 40 Commando were inserted on a joint raid with the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps at Elvegårdsmoen military training camp using Wildcats from 847 Naval Air Squadron and a Dutch NH90 from 820 Squadron.
Aircraft from Commando Helicopter Force have deployed to Northern Norway to Royal Norwegian Air Force base, Bardufoss, in Northern Norway, for their annual workout in the Arctic Circle, Operation Clockwork.
The Commando Merlin and Wildcat operators will master their environment – testing themselves and their machines against the extreme cold.
Personnel will carry out survival training, ensuring they can live and move in the wilderness – learning to navigate, ski and build shelters and forage for food – before conducting sorties over Norway’s fjords and mountains.
Intensive flying operations will ensure the Commando Helicopter Force is able to effectively operate their aircraft in the Arctic – testing pilots, observers and engineers alike.
All of this work will lead up to Exercise Cold Response – the largest military exercises in the country in 2026, which will demonstrate the unity of NATO and the ability of the alliance to deter threats in the high north.
Photographer: POPhot Lee Blease
One finisher soars towards the finish line and surprises everyone by doing a celebratory roll across the line.
Commando Memorial, a bronze monument crafted by Scott Sutherland and placed here in 1952 to commemorate the many members of the elite commando units who trained in the area during the second world war.
This work by Rhonda Surman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
© Rhonda Surman 2010
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Commando Challenge, today the ships company of HMS Ocean sampled life as a Royal Marine in the Commando Challange. This is an improvised assult course on the flight deck while the ship is in transit towards the Suez Canal on her way home from OP Taurus 09.. Images by LA (PHOT) Bernie Henesy HMS Ocean.
Pictured: 17 Feb 2026 - Royal Marines from 40 Commando on the ground after being inserted on a joint raid by 847 Naval Air Squadron Wildcat HMA Mk2 Helicopter at Elvegårdsmoen military training camp, Norway.
Royal Marines from 40 Commando were inserted on a joint raid with the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps at Elvegårdsmoen military training camp using Wildcats from 847 Naval Air Squadron and a Dutch NH90 from 820 Squadron.
Aircraft from Commando Helicopter Force have deployed to Northern Norway to Royal Norwegian Air Force base, Bardufoss, in Northern Norway, for their annual workout in the Arctic Circle, Operation Clockwork.
The Commando Merlin and Wildcat operators will master their environment – testing themselves and their machines against the extreme cold.
Personnel will carry out survival training, ensuring they can live and move in the wilderness – learning to navigate, ski and build shelters and forage for food – before conducting sorties over Norway’s fjords and mountains.
Intensive flying operations will ensure the Commando Helicopter Force is able to effectively operate their aircraft in the Arctic – testing pilots, observers and engineers alike.
All of this work will lead up to Exercise Cold Response – the largest military exercises in the country in 2026, which will demonstrate the unity of NATO and the ability of the alliance to deter threats in the high north.
Photographer: POPhot Lee Blease