Army Scout Masters Competition 2019: Troops gear up ahead of event

Ahead of the commencement of the fifth edition of the Army Scout Masters Competition from August 5-16, the practice sessions have reached their final leg. The competition will be held at Jaisalmer in Rajasthan and a total of eight countries--Armenia, Belarus, China, India, Kazakhstan, Russian Federation, Uzbekistan and Sudan-- are participating.

On Thursday, the Army tweeted that all the countries are training at their respective time slots to hone and fine-tune their skills. "Practice sessions for Army Scout Masters Competition are in final leg prior to commencement of the event on 5 Aug 2019. All the 7 countries are training at their respective time slots to hone and fine-tune their skills," tweeted the Army. 

Their activities include--a) Infiltration and Ambush Exercise; b) Scout Specialists Course; c) Scout Trail Obstacle Course; d) Small Arms Firing; e) Exfiltration and Floatation.

The competition is designed to promote co-operation, collaboration and team spirit among the contestants and facilitate sharing of best practices, technology and hardware. The five stages of the competition will test the marksmanship, navigation skills, endurance and teamwork amongst the teams under an international panel of judges, experts and arbiters.

The Army Scout Masters Competition will be conducted under the established format of competition amongst Scouts and will offer unique challenges and opportunities keeping in mind the spirit of adventure, courage, comradeship and true spirit of the Army Games.

The event aims to enhance international military to military and technical co-operation between the states participating in the Scout Masters Competition. It also seeks to promote the prestige of military service in general and Scouts in particular and assist the proliferation of best practices in field training amongst the participant states.

The competitions also strive to develop competitiveness amongst scouts participating in the competition and display combat capabilities and characteristic of modern type of weapons, military equipment and technical means of reconnaissance.

The full schedule of the event is as follows:

(a) 24 Jul - 03 Aug 2019--Arrival of teams, Documentation, Acclimatisation, Coordinating Conference, Briefing & Demonstration Preparatory Period

(b) 04 Aug 2019--Rehearsal Opening Ceremony

(c) 05 Aug 2019--Opening Ceremony

(d) 06 - 07 Aug 2019 Stage I - Infiltration & Ambush Exercise

(e) 08 - 09 Aug 2019 Stage II - Scout Specialist's Course

(f) 10 - 11 Aug 2019 Stage III - Scout Trail Obstacle Course

(g) 12 - 13 Aug 2019 Stage IV - Small Arms Firing

(h) 14 Aug 2019 Stage V - Exfiltration & Flotation

(j) 15 Aug 2019 Reserve Day

(k) 16 Aug 2019 Closing Ceremony

(l) 17 Aug 2019 Departure