Bugle Summer 2026 - Flipbook - Page 41
7 RIFLES
RIFLES take on
Ex DEFENCE CYBER MARVEL 2026
An eight-strong RIFLES team joined forces
with the Azerbaijan Military Cyber Team for
the British Army’s flagship cyber defence
exercise, February 2026.
In February this year, an eight-strong
RIFLES team deployed to take part in Exercise
DEFENCE CYBER MARVEL 2026 (DCM5), the
British Army’s flagship cyber defence exercise,
working alongside the Azerbaijan Military
Cyber Team as part of a growing bilateral
partnership between the UK and Azerbaijan.
DCM5 is the largest exercise of its kind run
by UK Defence, bringing together more than
2,500 participants across some 29 locations
worldwide, from a Singapore hub to a bilateral
element hosted in Baku, Azerbaijan. Teams
from across Defence, government departments,
industry partners and allied nations took on
the role of Blue Team defenders, tasked with
protecting simulated networks representing
everything from corporate IT to national critical
infrastructure, against a dedicated Red Team of
professional attackers.
RIFLES fielded a genuinely representative
eight-man team for DCM5: four reservists
and four regular soldiers drawn from across
RIFLES Battalions. Rfn Taran Sasioglu and
I represented 7 RIFLES, working alongside
colleagues from other battalions throughout
the exercise.
Over the exercise, our team took on the role
of a combined Cyber Protection Team, Network
Operations Centre and Security Operations
Centre, responsible for keeping our assigned
systems running while under sustained attack.
That meant constant vigilance: monitoring for
intrusions, patching vulnerabilities, responding
to simulated user complaints about system
outages, and making rapid decisions
about how to defend increasingly complex
networks as the scenario evolved and our
responsibilities grew.
The partnership with Azerbaijan formed
part of the bilateral military cooperation
plan agreed between the UK and Azerbaijan
Ministries of Defence for 2026 to 2027. The
Azerbaijan MOD subsequently highlighted
the exercise publicly, noting that specialists
from both countries demonstrated a high
level of professionalism in defending against
simulated attacks on critical infrastructure
and in conducting cyber investigation and
intelligence activities.
For those of us more used to soldiering
An eightstrong
RIFLES
team
joined
forces
with the
Azerbaijan
Military
Cyber
Team for
the British
Army’s
昀氀agship
cyber
defence
exercise
in the physical domain, DCM5 was a useful
reminder that cyber is now very much a
live front line. Modern militaries, and the
national infrastructure they protect, depend
on networks that can be attacked as readily
as any physical position, and exercises like
this build the muscle memory to defend
them under pressure, in a realistic, hightempo environment, without real-world
consequences if things go wrong.
For 7 RIFLES, it was also a good
demonstration of what the Reserves bring to
the wider Regiment. Several of our contingent
hold cyber security expertise gained in civilian
careers, and DCM5 gave them the chance to
put that directly to use in a military setting,
working with our regular colleagues and our
Azerbaijani partners.
Exercises like DEFENCE CYBER MARVEL
are only going to become more important to
the Army’s operational capability. If you have
an interest in cyber and haven’t yet had the
chance to get involved, it’s well worth talking
to your chain of command about future
opportunities.
CSjt Holmes
CEMA SNCO
RIFLES The Bugle 41
