Rivalries renewed as UK, US and more battle for epic Sandhurst Cup at West Point

it's the largest military skills competition on the planet one of the most physically challenging things that a person can go through they're going to finish this competition fully smoked the Americans simply call it Sandhurst from its origins in 1967 when the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in England presented the USA's Academy West Point with an officer's sword it was to be used as a prize for a competition to promote military Excellence Sandhurst was an internal competition here at West Point until 1992 in 1993 Sandhurst the one in England came from across the pond to take on the Americans and they won guys let's go let's go in 1997 Canada joined in and since 2002 teams from all over the world have taken part it all begins here with a relay race that will determine the starting order for the main event 3 2 1 [Music] participation is strictly by invite only this is not just a competition but a chance to build friendships and get to know allies the one country with an automatic place is the UK but there are a few consistent rures like Canada Japan and South Korea and for obvious reasons this year NATO looms large with Norway and Finland joining for the very first time the US military training academy Academy here at West Point is mandated by Congress to train 4,400 officer Cadets every year and it's huge over 40 square miles with all its training areas the main competition is comprised of 14 events over 48 Hours spread right across the campus designed to test the basic skills need to survive and thrive in a combat environment from physical endurance to shooting to Communications and combat medicine the visiting teams now have two days to try out the various events and hopefully slightly alleviate the home team Advantage first up the British try out the m17 pistol not a weapon they normally use anybody not fired a pistol before awesome you seen a wildlife on the range today wave your hand y'all cease fire let us know please don't shoot the animals um there shouldn't be any out there but we have we've had deer bear and turkeys out there before it's really fun actually cuz they drop drop when hit so you can see when you've hit all the targets and you've got about six in front of you so it's quite good the target better than hours then they're also 3D allows to sign of just figure 11 figure 12 targets which is which are good and they tell you where you're hitting but these These are pretty cool and what about this compared to the Glock uh yeah it's cool I mean it's got a safety feel a bit more like reassured I think we got um we we keep ours in the holster and the holster is the safety for for the Glocks whereas this you've got a safety on the Sid only gives you a little bit more sort of reassurance um and they're pretty much very similar like all of the um taking apart putting back together the weapons um most of the weapons handling is pretty similar um to our Glock so it's not too much of a disadvantage going to the competition like that like that mhm another event will be to Da full US Chemical biological radiological and nuclear protective gear and then conduct some sort of task communicating alone I found was probably going to be difficult though s are hopefully slightly more proficient gasas he got a shot whilst wearing the kit the teams will need to tie knots and at speed so having mastered the outfits it was then time to try tying up the hall around the tree so get the bunny strangle it put it through its face I think I think hang on for years the sandur cup was dominated by the UK with occasional wins from Canada then the US grew tired of losing and built a team whose sole purpose was to train and compete in military skills competitions let me introduce usma black and usma gold message for the British seems like nice nice team but just so they know they're not going to win it this year they're not going to take the sword from us so we'll see him out there on the fields of friendly stride this year representing the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst we have the red team and the blue team I ask them who are the ones to beat it feels like everyone's out to get us to be honest like um so is he really yeah I think the Americans have definitely got it in for us is this like the IR Vision Song Contest like no one no one no one wants us to win yeah except it won't be nil P for us this time so o fighting talk figh to they like to make a lot of noise and I think we're more shut up and just get on with it I don't think there's anything particularly fairing not a massive fan of running and there's a lot of running but it's fine Al come on faster faster let's go You' got to push it you got to push it coaching the santz teams is Captain TJ Eddie he's in the UK on Exchange from the US a lot of them love to make fun of my American accent it's been nice coming to West Point and giving them uh giving a little bit back here now that I'm no longer the minority but the majority here so need to tease them on their idiosyncrasies has been uh a bit of a pleasure before I go back to uh my prisoner exchange at Ro at the r alter cany SST the uniqueness about the the Brits is that they are overly calm in most situations they they seem the calmest and the most relaxed of all the teams here um which I'm hoping will translate into them performing very well tomorrow the Scandinavian country is quite big this year can I talk to you yeah of course are you Norway uh no I'm Denmark Denmark sorry Denmark and Finland right okay how how are you guys doing so far doing good who are your closest contenders well we have a kind of a Scandinavian battle going on so we're friends but we also want to beat each other that's the way it should be right Finland so people take this very seriously don't they no I don't think so at least the noric countries because we know that we are not going to win this competition and it's much more to be together here and get at meet each other and uh have a good time together we've been training pretty hard uh we're not uh super sure how we're going to do the military side but on the physical side we're super confident yeah we're very very good at crossfits so everything that's lifting weights we're pretty good is there secret weapon in here somewhere your go he's right here is he right here yeah he right what's your name Gabrielle the Canadian team this year also seem to be powered by mullets not a tactic adopted by the Americans yes the Canadians they've embraced the mullet we prefer a nice combed head of hair clean cut and that's our secret sauce let's go the relay race created an initial leaderboard with the British coming in an impressive fourth and very respectable 18th out of 48 teams based on this the next stage of the competition was a military version of the NFL draft whereby teams had to fight it out to determine which event they would start at and who they'd be up against Squad leaders were intentionally separated from their teams to put them under pressure it was a good opportunity for patch trading and to ramp up the fighting talk Canada's Royal Military College to start at Lane and I challenge any team that think they can beat us to start with [Applause] us Royal D Military Academy will compete with the fins in Lane 2 and to swe SC [Applause] by the end of the night the starting order was in place with the British Blues up against Japan Norway Arkansas Minnesota and Marquette and the Reds in a group with Finland Denmark Vermont Pennsylvania and Virginia it's at 6:30 a.m. everyone's in their starting positions looking a bit nervous [Music] [Applause] the UK red team begin with grenade throwing before moving on swiftly to event two on the lake welcome to this Lane how are we all doing great we're good great all right super this is the Zodiac Lane we're replicating operation Pegasus on this one you're going to pick up two two team members that are Behind Enemy Lines [Music] how are the UK doing they're killing it they might get a record time I don't know [Music] yes get theat get the get the the go left they must run between each event getting to the next location fastest earns them time bonuses so absolutely phenomenal performance okay make sure you maintain your momentum that Champion mind mindset that you all have demonstrated here and continue to push you guys are doing amazing I love it all right keep with the good work you go to Red 2 by two with the white and gray ramp sticking out to the right over the communications event sees the teams passing messages across a sports pitch in order to build a small Lego construction you go you catch this person you're good catch him at the end of the Hill what I think I'm seeing is a real sense of competition uh but Above All Else a great sense of camaraderie yeah these people will operate Around The World Together throughout their careers so they're going to recognize faces somewhere else in the near future and somewhere dangerous and that's why these competitions are so important it's very easy going through officer training I know personally to get to get very stove piped in solely focused on my future and my service my country this is a real eyee opening event that no matter what you do in your career you are not going to do it alone you are going to have Partners you're going to have the Joint Force whether that's American Canadian the UK you're never going to operate alone so you need to develop those leadership skills and those interpersonal skills to work with a variety of cultures and other militaries and that's what you get to do here for probably the the one or two weeks a year that everyone comes together here and leaves their home Academy you get to experience what that's going to be like when you operate as a coalition as a Joint Force what's next right so this is going to be the weapons Lane so they'll have to do some sort of physical event in the first half of it and then they'll have to move down and assemble and disassemble a M249 and m240 Bravo both us weapon systems that the Brits don't have are they any good at it they've had more training than they have in previous years but I think this is going to be a big challenging Lane for us you've helped them out quite a lot here right that's correct uh we're able to get them up to a US Air Force Base uh in the UK and get them some handson on the weapon systems which they haven't been able to do in previous years oh so they should be okay they're still going to win the line your weapons just here got B tree Ro straight away all the parts into the box by the ball unbeknownst to the competitors some of this was to be done blindfolded let's go grab those Kettle BS and run grab those kle BS and run let's go drive give it your no mishaps so far um consistently though I think our movements between lanes could could be a little bit better um we'll see how it progresses the rest of the uh the day cuz it's a marathon not a Sprint so as the other teams get tired I think our team has the resiliency to be able to push through and start getting that first place moving between lanes later in the day yeah basically you want them to speed up between yeah have you told them that they're well aware it is functional fitness was a NeverEnding exhausting stream of medson ball throwing wheelbarrows I'm not sure if they have a technical name and up and overs but the fins were still happy to be alive how are you doing well we're doing pretty well thanks um we have been very very excited to coming here in the United States this is the first time that Finland have ever competed in in San Hurst so this is this has been so qu great like experience for all of us and now the day wonderful so we we just keep going are you beating Denmark absolutely we are in all the Scandinavian and Nordic countries you're going to win you're going to beat all of them are you we try to we try our best Good Luck Good Luck Good Luck Good Luck vland we need to get him loaded onto a stretcher good to go and cheat for hypothermia after testing their combat medic skills the officer Cadets launch into a 9M tab or rook in American speak before two team members embark on night navigation having dropped back into 10th Place the red team stormm the night nav bringing them back to seventh they begin day two with the assault course [Music] then onto Marksmanship firing the M4 carbine go go go go next is call for fire wel this is Mackenzie Bravo One add 100 over UK right over teams are split with half calling in Fire and the others firing in West Point's Simulation Center make ready ready last one the last event The Crucible 48 teams have exhausted officer Cadets from 16 countries make it through the finish line and finally their marathon is complete the Nations celebrate in their own individual ways they have just a short wait now before the overall winners of this year's santz cup will be revealed are you all right yeah I'm good I'm good well done the Allies Gather in the largest mess hall they've probably ever been in West Point feeds its 4,400 officer Cadets here at the same time each day and it's pretty impressive Canada thought they and their mullets had done enough but in the end it was usma black who brought it home Canada second and the US Air Force Academy third UK red and blue finally placed 14th and 35th coach Captain Eddie has the final would so coming here as an American officer leading the UK team you know I thought I would have some divided loyalties between the United States and the United Kingdom but I showed up 100% rooting for both red and blue from the UK uh both performed phenomenally and uh it's been an absolute honor to lead both teams I will say that it's been absolutely reassuring that considering a land war in Europe and uh Rising tensions in the Pacific seeing our friends and allies performing to such a high standard reassures you that our alliances could not be any stronger and that the people that we be fighting alongside someday are just as good as we are the team couldn't be more cohesive Hanah King forces news at West Point USA thanks for watching for more from forces news like And subscribe to our Channel

Channel: Forces News

Views: 193,247

Keywords: Forces News, Forces TV, British Armed Forces, British, Forces, military, serving, military personnel, Ministry of Defence, British defence, British military, Hannah King, Sandhurst Cup, US Military Academy West Point, Major Conor Downs

Id: wUX3HA3r6-4

Length: 16min 29sec (989 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 29 2024