The British Army has invested more than £4.4 million in trench warfare training infrastructure across the Defence Training Estate, adding new systems at Copehill Down Training Village on Salisbury Plain and at Eastmere Village in Stanford Training Area in Norfolk. The work gives soldiers more realistic places to train for modern operations, even though the training model draws on trench networks associated with earlier warfare.
Copehill Down Training Village
The projects were delivered through a partnership between the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, the British Army and Landmarc Support Services. The new facilities include extensive trench networks, fighting positions, covered command posts, protected shelters, bunkers, observation points, firing platforms and vehicle positions. Together, those features create challenging and representative environments for military personnel to train in realistic operational scenarios.
Brigadier Gavin Hatcher CBE, Head of Overseas and Training Region at the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, said: “These projects demonstrate our continued investment in the Defence Training Estate and our commitment to ensuring the armed forces have access to the infrastructure they need to train effectively. Working closely with Landmarc and the British Army, we have delivered facilities that reflect the changing character of warfare and support realistic, demanding training. This investment will help ensure that our training estate continues to provide world-class facilities that enable soldiers to prepare for the challenges of modern operations.”
Eastmere Village in Norfolk
The Eastmere Village work adds Eastern European-style trench networks inside Stanford Training Area in Norfolk, while Copehill Down Training Village gains new trench systems on Salisbury Plain. That split shows how the money has been used to build two different training settings rather than one standard design, with each site built to support the Army’s wider modernisation programme.
Colonel William Robinson, Deputy Chief of Staff at the Land Warfare Centre, said: “The character of conflict continues to evolve, and it is essential that our training environments evolve alongside it. These new trench systems provide soldiers with realistic facilities that support the development of tactical skills, decision-making and battlefield awareness in representative conditions. Investment in infrastructure such as this helps ensure the Defence Training Estate continues to deliver world-class training in support of operational readiness.”
For soldiers training on the Defence Training Estate, the practical change is immediate: the sites now offer the kind of layered battlefield features needed for more realistic field exercises, not just open-ground drills. The next stage is simple use, not another announcement — the new trench systems are there to be trained in, and the Army’s readiness work will now be shaped by how often those facilities are put through their paces.
