Protecting the Relam in Cyber Space
On Thursday 27 November 2025 members of the WCIT were kindly invited to visit the Uxbridge Army Reserve Centre to observe the final day of Exercise Army Cyber Spartan. We were generously hosted by 71st (City of London) Yeomanry Signal Regiment (71 Y Sig Regt), the only London based Signal Regiment in the Corps.
71 Y Sig Regt is a reservist regiment whose primary role is to provide Command Support to 3rd (United Kingdom) Division. More recently, the Regiment has been given the task of providing defensive cyber capabilities by providing managers, analysts and maintainers for the Division’s Security Operating Centre (SOC)
Following a welcome by the Commanding Officer, Lt Col Dave Burnett, there followed a briefing by the Ops Major, Terry Bickerstaff, on the roles of the Regiment, its structure, manpower and equipment, and current capabilities. Information concerning the brief to create the SOC and the response from the Regiment was provide by Yeoman WO2 (YofS) Pete Allen. A particular area of interest in this section was the challenge of training Cyber specialists to MoD certifications with limited training time available around core communication and soldiering duties.
Details of the exercise were provided by Sgt Pete Goring, a cyber specialist within the regiment. The exercise itself is an annual event run over one week with 26 Teams from across the UK. While intended as a training exercise, participating teams are evaluated and independently scored based on aspects of their performance. Each of the 26 Teams has 5 dedicated networks to reflect real-life segregation of communications based on sensitivity and purpose. Throughout the exercise various attacks on the networks are initiated and the teams needed to identify and report the perpetrators and associated technical information. As the exercise progresses the teams are challenged by an ever-broadening range of attacks, both in terms of access points (web, networks etc) and the complexity and sophistication of the attack method.
To round off the visit, we were allowed into the area where the Regiment’s team was operating to see the exercise underway and speak to some of the participants. As the exercise was entering its final few hours there was a hive of activity to ensure the networks remained secure and as many points as possible were scored to live up to previous years’ high performance in the exercise. Unfortunately, we are, for obvious reasons, unable to share any photos of the team.
Our thanks go to the CO and his team for the invitation to join them and for providing an enjoyable and very informative visit.
Court Assistant Nick Claydon