Hosted by Headquarters 2nd Malaysian Infantry Brigade, the 4-day Army Section Combat Skills Test (Ujian Kemahiran Tempur Seksyen Tentera Darat) ended on Thursday, September 28 at the Camp Syed Putra rifle range. Fourteen infantry sections, of eight members each, representing 14 infantry brigades from all over the country participated. The energy-sapping test was conducted at the training ground in Lasah, Sungai Siput.
Tenth Malaysian Infantry Brigade (Para), represented by 9th Royal Malay Regiment (Para) from Terendak Camp, Malacca emerged champion.
“This combat skills test will be an annual competition forthwith. Being the culmination of the yearly battalion training programme, its primary aim is to gauge the effectiveness of training conducted by brigades annually. The overall achievement was exemplary. Participating sections are selected randomly from battalions to determine whether training done by the brigades is all-inclusive and comprehensive,” Chief of Army, General Tan Sri Zulkiple bin Hj Kassim told Ipoh Echo. The first of a similar test was done when he was the Army Corps Commander (West Malaysia) in 2015.
A brainchild of his, the test combines the elements of physical and mental fitness via three major disciplines namely, endurance march, day and night navigation, problem solving and live-firing (shooting).
The 11-km endurance march tests the section commander’s fitness, leadership and signal-communications skills.
“Problem solving is mostly tactical. When the section bases up, aspects of field administration such as cleanliness, security, sentry duties and alarm system are assessed. The toughest is the second phase, the application of techniques and tactics which is continuous for four days. We’ll give them a problem, the commanders have to think, prepare their plan, brief their men and execute the plan. The umpires from the Special Services Brigade (Gerup Gerak Khas) will observe and grade the participants. Their plans have to be technically and tactically right otherwise, in real life, they will falter and fail,” said the army chief.
The competition ended with a live-firing exercise in a defensive and offensive scenario based on a battlefield situation.
Present were Army Corps Commander (West Malaysia), Lt-Gen Datuk Azizan bin Md Delin; Army Corps Commander (East Malaysia), Lt-Gen Dato’ Wira Mohd Zaki bin Hj Mokhtar; General Officer Commanding 2nd Malaysian Infantry Division, Major-General Dato’ Mohd Ramli bin Jaafar and Commander 2nd Malaysian Infantry Brigade, Brigadier-General Datuk Mohd Nizam bin Hj Jaffar.
