THE KING’S CHALLENGE was the final event of the 14th Annual Warrior Competition (14AWC) for Special Operations Forces at KASOTC in Jordan, reports Bob Morrison.
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Over the first four competitive days of the 14th Annual Warrior Competition all 38 teams from 25 countries took part, but for the fifth and final day’s Event only the top fifteen ranked teams were allowed to participate. Culling 60% of participating teams at this stage was a simple logistics necessity as the punishing final round, which each team was allowed three hours to complete at half hour interval start times, was run across most of the extensive KASOTC facility and involved pretty much the entire team of range staff, instructors, supervisors and judges being deployed from before first light until mid to late afternoon.
After visiting the Start Line a little before 06:30 to confirm schedules had not changed overnight, your humble scribe then headed northwards to the Commando Tower for a briefing from the range staff before the first team arrived to commence Station 1. The overall Task for THE KING’S CHALLENGE was to move as a team along a designated route, navigating between three Checkpoints out on the more remote sections of the course and successfully completing five Stations, under daytime conditions wearing full event uniform; order of movement for the event was based on the top fifteen teams’ Raw Run Time for the previous day’s TRAIL OF VICTORY event.
At the end of the Team Leaders’ Briefing for this final event, at which point I had a good idea of the course competitors would run and the likely best photo opportunities, I decided to concentrate on Stations One and Three – the Commando Tower and the Urban Area – with a brief stop for photo variety at the water obstacle checkpoint on the off-road driving course. I wanted to try to photograph as many of the fifteen teams as possible to ensure I had a variety of images of the three who finally made it to the 14AWC podium, and as during preceding days I had managed to snap most teams on the various firing ranges (pistol, rifle and sniper) I think I made the correct decision; having said that, I didn’t manage to achieve shotgun or stretcher run photos but I did achieve my goal of photographing all fifteen KING’S CHALLENGE teams in action.
Station One: After moving briskly over rough quarry tracks from the Start Point to the Commando Tower, upon arrival at the base each of the team members had to don KASOTC-supplied rappel harnesses and gloves then climb almost to the very top using internal stairs. Once all five had reached the relevant floor, supervised by event staff on safety strops they had to individually abseil (rappel) back to ground level. Only once the previous team member had cleared the rope, closely supervised by another member of the event team staff on the ground, could the next team member begin the descent. When all five had linked up again at the tower base they had to return the specialist equipment issued just for this Station then speedily advance to the next Station at the 150m Manoeuvre Range C.
Station Two: Upon arrival at Range C the team had to occupy assigned rifle shooting positions with all five Operators having to be in position before firing could be initiated; engagement on this range was in two stages. At Stage 1 team members had to lock and load their assault rifle with a 5-round magazine and engage the targets in the scenario from the prone unsupported shooting position. There were five rifle targets here, one per Shooter, with five rounds allocated per target and all five targets had to be engaged simultaneously. (This range was also used during part of TRAIL OF VICTORY but with a different scenario and target layout).
Once the rifle targets had been engaged, or Shooters ran dry, they needed to show “Clear!” then move as a team to occupy Stage 2 shooting positions, where the assigned KASOTC.45 ACP Pistols had to be locked and loaded with a 5-round magazine for Shooters to then engage targets in the scenario from the standing firing position. There were five targets, one target per Shooter, with five rounds per target and all five pistol targets had to be engaged simultaneously. When the pistol targets had been engaged, or the Shooters ran dry, they had to show “Clear!” and return the issued pistols to the turn-in point and then advance to the next Station.
For the next several kilometres the teams had to move at pace around the northern and eastern quadrants of the facility on rough tracks, passing through three manned checkpoints on the more remote sections, before racing for over half a kilometre on tarmac then taking mostly to rough tracks again to cross the high ground to the south-west of the urban life-fire complex designated Station Three. On leaving the Commando Tower after photographing the first five teams I drove myself during a brief window of opportunity to Checkpoint One, between Stations One and Three, where I was able to grab photos of three more of the teams negotiating the water obstacle; after they had tackled the steep climb up from Range C the comparatively cold water in the 30metre long off-road vehicle wading trench was a bit of a shock but was probably quite welcome.
After leaving Checkpoint One I jumped behind the wheel and gingerly coaxed my 4×2 hire car (just as a hire car is usually the fastest car in the world in first gear, it is also often the best off-roader) over KASOTC’s off-road driving course back to the main arterial road and to head towards Station Three to try to photograph the other seven teams to fill my dance card. More through luck than skill, after parking up just outside the live-fire range as directed by range staff, I made it down to the start line just in time to catch up with the eighth team (Brunei RPK Team 1) as they departed to engage the first target.
Station Three: From the Start Line the five-man team had to commence a tactical movement, clearing through the urban area and engaging all targets with assault rifles as they appeared. There were four targets, all inside buildings, and the four designated Shooters had to engage targets with two 5.56mm rounds per target; issuing two rounds to each of four team members ensured that Team Captains could not allocate only their best Shooter to engage targets and also meant that teamwork and coordination were tested. If each target was not hit by two rounds it did not fall and therefore was not scored.
When moving through the Urban area the teams had to only walk on the asphalt, not the side walks, and penalties were awarded against any who ignored this instruction. Once the four targets had been engaged, or the Shooters had run dry, they had to show “Clear!” and advance as a team to the Station Four. I was permitted by Range Safety to photograph from several locations of my choosing along the initial part of the live-fire route, both at ground and first floor levels, while the teams engaged the first three of four targets but as I am not as mobile as I used to be before my cancer operation and accident shortly afterwards I decided not to try to keep up with them as they patrolled further into the complex to locate the fourth target.
Later, after points and penalties had been awarded for Station Three, a couple of the team leaders whose guys had missed targets asked me if I could explain why I thought they had gone wrong as they knew I had seen several teams pass through and also had a different vantage point from them. Both had been amongst several that missed the second target, which was actually one of two visible right from the very start. Just as would occur in an operational environment the ‘Hostile Shooter’ targets were positioned well back from windows and in the shadows. Target 1 at ground floor level was quite easy to spot, though if the first member of the patrol was mostly scanning to the front they could potentially miss this one, though it would have been quite obvious to the patrol member scanning the right quadrant. Target 3, at first floor level in a larger opening, was more obvious but as Target 2 at second floor level was in a narrow opening and most eyes were on Target 3 this one was the potential miss. I could not see Target 4 from my position but I heard most if not all teams shooting at it.
During movement through the urban area, at the gas station which was further round the Station and out of my line of sight, one member of each team was declared as being a casualty. His colleagues then had to apply a tourniquet on his left upper arm and load him onto the lightweight litter or stretcher issued to each team at the start of the day and evacuate him to an extraction point (i.e. the Event Finish Point) after assessment by event officials. The teams then proceeded to Station Four on the KISR or KASOTC Interactive Shooting Range.
Station Four: Upon arrival at this Station the four Operators carrying their team member casualty had to ground him and occupy assigned shooting positions, with all four having to be in the shooting positions before the leader could initiate fire. On the KISR, target engagement was in three Stages. At the Station 4 Stage 1 both Shooters 1 and 2 had to lock and load their pistol with a 6-round magazine and from the standing shooting position engage the targets as they appeared in the scenario. There were eight targets, four per Shooter, with one round required per target. Both Shooters had to engage pistol targets simultaneously with each having an additional two rounds for the engagement, in case needed. Once pistol targets had been engaged, or Shooters had run dry, they needed to show “Clear!“, returning the extra rounds if applicable, then remain in the assigned shooting position to initiate the Stage 2 engagement.
Shooter 3 now had to lock and load his rifle with a 4-round magazine and engage the targets in the scenario from the standing shooting position. When the four rifle targets had been engaged with one round apiece, or the Shooter had run dry, he needed to show “Clear!” then remain in his assigned shooting position to initiate the Stage 3 engagement. Shooter 4 then had to lock and load the KASOTC-supplied shotgun with four 12G cartridges and engage the four targets in the scenario from the standing shooting position with one round each. On completion he also had to show “Clear!“, the team then had to pick up the casualty on the litter and speedily advance with him for around 500 metres on tarmac to Station Five and the Finish behind the Method of Entry building. Time stopped once all five team members reached the designated Finish Point with all uniform requirements and items of issued equipment.
Once all King’s Challenge scores and reports had been compiled it was determined that the Jordan’s Special Forces had taken 3rd Place, with Iraq’s Counter-Terrorism Service in 2nd Place and Royal Oman Police achieving 1st Place. Scores for this final Event were then combined with the tallies for all preceding Events to determine the Top Three Teams for the 14th Annual Warrior Competition.
[All images © Bob Morrison]
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Disqualifications: Teams would be disqualified from the event and receive zero points in the entire King’s Challenge event if:
- unable to successfully complete the event within the three hour time limit
- failing to complete a Station or an Obstacle
- overtaken and passed by another team
Time Penalties:
- Engaging targets outside the specific shooting position incurred a 15 minutes Penalty
- Moving without having the injured team member on the litter incurred a 15 minutes Penalty; only if the litter broke could the teams move their injured colleague by Buddy Carrying
- Engaging targets before all team members were in the specific shooting position (at Station 2 and 4) incurred a 15 minutes Penalty
- Engaging a Station 3 target with more than two rounds incurred a 10 minutes Penalty
- Failure to apply the Tourniquet properly incurred a 10 minutes Penalty
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