KASOTC, the King Abdullah II Special Operations Training Center, is the home of the Annual Warrior Competition for SpecOps Forces, writes Bob Morrison.
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KASOTC, the King Abdullah II Special Operations Training Center located in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is widely considered to be not only the best military training facility in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region but one of the best in the world. Since its official opening in 2009, the centre has hosted fourteen Annual Warrior Competitions; the 12th competition being postponed from 2020 until 2022 by the COVID pandemic and the following event being held over until 2024.
I first became aware of the plans for the KASOTC facility in 2004 when visiting SOFEX, the Special Operations Forces Exhibition, in Amman then two years later I was given a detailed briefing by the development team who were aiming to have the site live by 2008/9. Two decades after the initial announcement, the facility not only delivers everything originally envisaged but it has also expanded and matured in ways that few outsiders thought would be feasible when it was first conceived.
[© Bob Morrison]
The personal vision of His Majesty King Abdullah II, Supreme Commander of Jordan’s armed forces and a former soldier whose military service included a year as a cavalry officer in the British Army, the KASOTC complex is housed in a massive disused stone quarry which allows for extensive firing with live ammunition while monitored by hundreds of cameras allowing comprehensive After Action Reviews. Although there is sufficient space and accommodation to allow a full infantry battalion with support elements to be trained, the primary target audience is national and international Tier One and Tier Two Special Forces and Special Operations Forces units.
[© Bob Morrison]
This year, on behalf of JOINT-FORCES, I was privileged to visit KASOTC for the first full calendar week of October to cover the 14th Annual Warrior Competition with unrestricted access to both the events and the competitors, and as a result I captured so many images that it has taken all my spare time since my return to catalogue them. This year was actually my sixth visit to the North Amman facility cover a Warrior Competition – to avoid over-saturation I only cover even numbered events – and in hindsight it was one of the best.
[© Bob Morrison]
For this intro ahead of my series of more in-depth features covering this year’s events, I have gone back through my archives to create this album of images that hopefully should give readers an insight into what it is that makes KASOTC such an interesting and unique training facility. Of course these Competitions are not the facility’s primary raison d’être , but many of the nations who participate in them will have previously sent their military and police Special Operations units here to fine tune their TTP or Tactics, Techniques and Procedures. At time of writing almost 125,000 operators from over 70 countries have passed through KASOTC.
Note: For safety during Annual Warrior Competition magazines are only fitted to pistol or rifle while on firing ranges.
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