British commandos carry out major exercise in chemical warfare

LONDON, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- The largest ever exercise in Britain in chemical warfare, involving hundreds of troops, has been completed, the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) announced Tuesday.

The three-week exercise, Toxic Dagger, was staged to prepare British troops for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) operations.

A range of exercises placed a commando unit from the Royal Marines at the sharp end of chemical warfare.

"Specialists were able to create realistic exercise scenarios based on the latest threat information," said a spokesperson for the exercise.

"Completing the training and exercising against these scenarios provides a challenging program for the Royal Marines to demonstrate their proficiency in the methods to detect, assess and mitigate a CBRN threat."

The program, included realistic attacks and scenarios, concluded with a full-scale exercise involving government and industry scientists and more than 300 military personnel.

Major Rob Garside, from 40 Commando Royal Marines, said: "It is vital we can make rapid decisions and are able to protect and support specialists who come in to deal with any incident." Enditem