Virtual gun rampage of bored Scots squaddie
AN ARMY rifleman has been reprimanded after going on a ‘killing spree’ in a virtual battlefield exercise.
In the computer game, he shot dead one of his comrades and destroyed vehicles in order to kill several others.
The Edinburgh-based rifleman is believed to be the first soldier to be punished under UK military law for offences in a virtual scenario rather than real life.
According to defence sources, the furious squaddie from 3rd Battalion, the Rifles, got fed up with ‘playing soldiers’ on a computer screen and decided to go rogue.
His actions amused fellow soldiers, but commanders accused him of lacking professionalism.
A Rifles source said: ‘We’d spent two weeks sitting in front of laptops pretending we were in a really hostile urban environment – I’d challenge anyone to take it seriously for that long.
‘All this was taking place in an office at our headquarters, when we’d rather be doing real-life soldiering outside in the fresh air.
‘But there’s less of that sort of exercise these days because the Army has committed to unit-based virtual training.
‘We were supposed to imagine we were travelling in armoured vehicles through a really hostile built-up area.
‘One of the lads just lost his rag and “opened fire” as it were, killing the soldier next to him. He then drove down the street deliberately smashing into cars. It’s safe to say the officers in our battalion did not find it as funny as we did.’
After Exercise Urban Strike, the unnamed Rifleman received a dressing down from top brass and was formally charged with disobeying orders.
His punishment was to spend a weekend carrying out guard duties at the 3 Rifles base at Redford Barracks in Edinburgh.
Another soldier in the unit wrote on social media: ‘Army’s a joke – got me playing a game for two weeks.’
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said last night: ‘We take the training of our service personnel very seriously and anyone who is disruptive to this training will receive disciplinary action.
‘The Armed Forces have always embraced innovation and we are committed to harnessing new and emerging capabilities, like virtual reality.
‘Virtual reality training programmes are able to deliver greater flexible training and replicate complex scenarios, allowing for rapid experimentation, development of tactics and ability to test new vehicles in multiple environments.’