To provide, maintain and develop safe and sustainable training facilities in order to meet the training requirements of Defence
The facilities consist of:
* Castlemartin Range - a direct-fire AFV live gunnery range
* Air Defence Range Manorbier - an air defence live-firing range
* Penally Training Camp and small-arms Gallery Range
* Templeton Airfield Training Area
* Pembrey Sands Air Weapons Range
The Defence Training Estate was formed in 1999 and the ranges host units from many parts of the UK who come to take advantage of the particular facilities that can be offered. Castlemartin provides one of the UK's major live-fire training facilities for armoured fighting vehicles, and Manorbier is the Army's principal asset for close air-defence systems. Penally Training Camp provides accommodation and range facilities both to complement Manorbier, and in its own right, and also controls the dry training area at Templeton disused airfield. Pembrey Sands is used to teach the basic techniques for air-to-ground firing; every fast-jet pilot in the RAF has been trained at Pembrey Sands.
ENVIRONMENT AND CONSERVATION
The Defence Training Estate strives continually to accommodate the interests of both the military and other stakeholders in the guardianship of our open spaces, and has made excellent progress in maintaining the development of sophisticated planning and management systems to ensure that training on our Estate is appropriate in terms of the area, nature of ground, and seasonal factors – for example, by taking into account farming practices and conservation considerations such as the breeding seasons of rare species. There are nearly 200 military conservation groups within the UK. The Army takes its role in conservation seriously and recognises the unique value of its Training Areas. Conservation interests are safeguarded in Pembrokeshire by management agreements with statutory bodies such as the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Department and the Countryside Council for Wales, as well as through help and advice from organisations such as the Castlemartin Range Recording and Advisory Group, and representatives from Manorbier and Penally. Conservation groups are always open to new members. Membership is free and the groups are always pleased to recruit anyone prepared to help in monitoring and the compilation of records of the wildlife in the area.