DIO invests £2.4m to improve training facilities at New Zealand Farm Camp

The Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) is investing £2.4 million at New Zealand Farm Camp on Sailsbury Plain Training Area in Wiltshire to bring it in line with modern day and future training requirements.

The refurbishment will involve demolishing 12 buildings and replacing them with 11 multi-functional structures known as stone tents. The new buildings will provide a modern, multi-purpose training camp that can be used as a Forward Operating Base or to replicate a terrorist camp, refugee camp and a Non-Governmental Organisation Base or as part of a complex manoeuvre environment.

The facilities will also provide an exercise base for troops training in the local area. The funding will be used to provide more street lighting to the area, a new public address system provision for military personnel to remotely plug in to a Field Electrical Power Supply (FEPS) generator.

Jeff Elson, DIO’s Training Safety Marshall at Salisbury Plain, said: “DIO’s priority is to support our armed forces by delivering the facilities they need to live, work, train and deploy on operations. The investment being made in upgrading New Zealand Farm Camp is the biggest single investment in a training camp on Salisbury Plain since Copehill Down village in the late 1980s.

“The diverse training features that will be incorporated into the site will benefit our training troops as they will enable a variety of exercise scenarios to be undertaken.”