What career options are there to go down the route of surveillance and recon, both as solider and officer?

Hi Luke,

It all varies depending on what ratio of tech:action you are looking for. In every Infantry Battalion there is both a reconnaissance Platoon and a CIS Platoon. The job of Recon is to get eyes on the enemy as close as possible without giving their posistion away, this can involve tech but possibly not on the same level you had in mind. CIS Platoon is our in-house Infantry signallers, each with their own role on deployments.

If you're looking for a role in surveillance and reconnaissance that is very tech heavy, I would recommend a career within the Intelligence Corps.

Hope this is of some help, please feel free to ask any furthur questions.

To add to what Steven said above. Reconnaissance platoons within light role infantry units have signals trained soldiers attached to them. As you work in small teams within a reconnaissance team, every operator in that team will be qualified in signals to some level and you will have a signaller attached who would have gone away and done a decent level course, usually a signals detachment commander.

Being light role, we train all of our own soldiers in a certain skill rather than employing external soldiers within unit.

Hope this gives a little more info to Stevens response.

If you have any further questions, don’t hesitate in asking.

J

Thank you both, this has helped.
In terms of tech:action ratio i definitely lean more towards action. My thought was to see if there was a role that caters for my interest in surveillance and recon and working in the field as well as utilising my ability with tech.

A role in reconnaissance definitely sounds like one you would enjoy.

Have a look on the army roles page and do some homework. Also check out the welsh guards Facebook page to see what all the platoons are currently doing.

J

Hi Luke,

In addition to what Steven and James have said above there are also roles which you may wish to consider within the Royal Artillery, these tend to me more technically focused.

The Royal Artillery has a number of Regiments focused on information, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance, (ISTAR). Two Regiments use unmanned aerial vehicles to locate the enemy, gather information and direct fires. Another regiment uses radars and sound ranging equipment to locate enemy artillery assets and direct counter fires upon them. In addition to this each Gun Regiment has a number of Fire Support Teams, whose role it is to support ground forces and provide their additional firepower through locating the energy and bringing down indirect fires either via artillery, air or aviation.

Each of these units has specialists in the equipment, but also has signallers, and logisticians, so there are a plethora of roles to consider.

If you decide that the Army is for you and continue to have an interest in ISTAR I would recommend conducting a number of Regimental visits, including a visit to an infantry unit, Formation Reconnaissance Unit, and the Royal Artillery so you can see what role each has to play.

Feel free to come back to me if you have any more questions.

Katie

Thanks James, I will do. Also have a colleague who did 12 years in the welsh guard so will have a chat with him.

Thanks Katie, I had looked at the special observers but it looks like there more roles in the royal artillery to research than i realised.
It also sounds like signallers do get a lot of options open to them as well.

Goodluck Luke! Check out all the Facebook pages to see what each regiment are up to