Irish Defence Forces Irish Defence Forces

SOME 1,300 MEMBERS of the Irish Defence Forces have been participating in a massive military exercise.

The ‘Dark Nights’ exercise has been taking place at the training centre in Kildare and Kilworth training area in Cork over the last two weeks and ends today. It is the largest exercise of its kind to be organised in recent years.

The aim of ‘Dark Nights’ was to assess the operational readiness of the force and maintain and develop skills and capabilities.

Irish Defence Forces Irish Defence Forces

Soldiers took part in various exercises which involved enemy parties and role players who pretended to be victims.

In addition to exercising core infantry battalion capabilities, the exercise included armoured cavalry, combat engineers and the Air Corps.