Pig arks help soldiers train for combat

WASTE plastic collected from farms across the UK is to help soldiers more effectively engage the enemy thanks to an innovative Scottish company.

Training with small arms has always involved soldiers adopting fire positions best suited to the terrain that they occupy.

Current operations overseas have identified the need to fire from and use cover behind the characteristic domed roofs of Middle Eastern structures.

This requires realistic "range furniture" on purpose-built training ranges and this is where recycled silage covers and net wraps from big straw bales have come in useful.

Many of these are recycled by Solway Recycling and Jim Muir from the company said that after viewing the firm's website MoD procurement officials realised that pig arks made from Stokboard, which is produced by recycling farm waste plastic, were very similar to the domed structures found in the Middle East.

Several designs were tried and amendments made after live firing trials to meet MoD requirements.

The result is an order for more than a 100 firing domes or converted pig arks going to UK training camps to be used by British forces early this year.

It may not be a virtuous circle in recycling, but some of the waste material going into the firing domes could have come from farms owned by the Ministry of Defence.

According to Muir, Solway Recycling collects waste plastic from many tenanted farms on MoD training areas such as Otterburn and Larkhill.