7th Kenya Rifles Battalion | |
---|---|
Active | 8 June 1968 |
Country | ![]() |
Branch | ![]() |
Type | Infantry |
Role | light infantry |
Garrison/HQ | Langata Barracks, Nairobi |
Colours | Maroon |
Engagements | Operation Linda Nchi African Union Mission in Somalia |
7 Kenya Rifles is an infantry battalion of the Kenya Army. It came into being on June 8, 1968, at Gilgil in a British army camp which had been abandoned since 1964. [1] The first commanding officer of the unit Was Lt Col Wambua. The unit relocated to its current base at Langata in 1973. [2] [3] The Maroon Commandos is a military band belonging to the battalion. [4]
The battalion between 2003-2004 saw extensive support from the United States through training 250-450 of its personnel. [5] The training involved field intelligence, command and control and basic maneuver and firepower. The battalion's leadership underwent the program first before transitioning as trainers to the rest of the battalion. The training cycles lasted approximately four weeks and further support in terms of equipment worth $3.8 million was provided to the battalion. [6]
The Infantry of the British Army, comprises 49 infantry battalions, from 19 regiments. Of these, 33 battalions are part of the Regular army and the remaining 16 a part of the Army Reserve. The British Army's Infantry takes on a variety of roles, including armoured, mechanised, air assault and light.
Jäger is a German military term referring to specific light infantry units.
Claret was the code name given to operations conducted from about July 1964 until July 1966 from East Malaysia across the border in Indonesian Kalimantan during the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation. They were instigated by the Director of Borneo Operations (DOBOPS) Major General Walter Walker with the agreement of the British and Malaysian governments. Their purpose was to seize the initiative and put the Indonesians on the defensive instead of allowing Indonesian forces to be safely based in Kalimantan and attack when and where they chose. However, it was important not to cause the Indonesians to lose face and possibly escalate the conflict, or to enable Indonesia to present evidence of 'imperialist aggression', so Claret operations were highly classified and never publicised, although it seems that some British journalists were aware of what transpired. British casualties on Claret operations were publicly reported as being in East Malaysia.
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Future Soldier is a reform of the British Army resulting from the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy published in March 2021. The aim of the reform is to create a more lethal, agile and expeditionary force, able to fight and win wars and to operate in the grey-zone between peace and war. Future Soldier was published on 25 November 2021 and deals with the organizational changes of the British Army, with changes to personnel and equipment were set out in the Defence in a Competitive Age paper published on 22 March 2021.