By Lindy Suharupa
The Special Long Range Reconnaissance Unit or LRRU of the Papua New Guinea Defence Force has revived its training program called Long Range Assessment and Selection Program 1.
The intent of this program is to prepare and select more soldiers to join this specialised unit.
The LRRU soldiers are trained and are responsible to protect the country’s air space and land borders.
A total of twenty-eight soldiers from Taurama have undergone an intensive physical training in preparation for selection into the LRRU.
The physical fitness training involves two meters push ups and sits ups, and pack March in which the soldiers will carry weight of 28kilograms and sprint a total time of three hours and thirty minutes.
These are among other training exercises that the soldiers have done.
The last leg of the training involves swimming a total distance of 600 meters.
The soldiers who pass all these fitness physical training will go onto Program 2 which will be conducted in April of this year.
The Long Range Assessment and Selection Program 2 will be conducted at the Goldie River Training Depot which will involve a lot more intense training.
Similar trainings have been conducted in Wewak’s Moem Barracks with a total of 22 soldiers who have passed and Igam Barracks in Lae with a total of 12 soldiers who have also passed their physical fitness test.
Soldiers from Moem and Igam Barracks will all meet with their NCD counterparts to begin the second leg of the training come April with a final IQ Test to be conducted for the selected soldiers who pass Programs one and two respectively.
The main purpose of these trainings is to select more soldiers to join the special Long Range Reconnaissance Unit of the PNG Defence Force.
The LRRU is specialised in protecting our country’s sovereignty including performing search and rescue.
