Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he plans to increase the British Army's use of the British Army Training Unit Suffield in the (a) current and (b) next Parliament.
BATUS continues to be used for both training and experimentation activity.
Below are the numbers of training exercises that have taken place at BATUS in each of the last 10 financial years, including the current financial year. 18 Training exercises have taken place in total.
Financial Year | Number of Training Exercises |
2016-17 | 3 |
2017-18 | 3 |
2018-19 | 2 |
2019-20 | 2 |
2020-21 | 0 |
2021-22 | 0 |
2022-23 | 2 |
2023-24 | 2 |
2024-25 | 2 |
2025-26 | 2 |
There is one further training exercise currently scheduled to take place next financial year 2027-27.
Future use of BATUS is dependent upon the outcome of the Defence Investment Plan.