The King’s Challenge – a grueling relay

There was a tremendous amount of effort and motivation on display today at the 6th Annual Warrior Competition. Competitors took part in the “King's Challenge”, a 5 station relay over difficult terrain, under or through difficult terrain interspersed with various range trials throughout. The final relay ended with a shooting challenge on steel using the very unique custom .45 1911 that gives the “King's Challenge” its name (much more on that later). Misses were rewarded with additional laps.

I was miserable just watching them but was very impressed with the shooting. Unfortunately, and although all were previously instructed in its manual of arms, unfamiliarity with the 1911 platform hindered some of the shooters.

The King's Pistol is a limited edition (very limited edition) 1911 hand built by His Majesty's armorers. According to some of the cadre on the ground (including some foreign nationals and corroborated by members of the press) the King prefers the 1911 over other handguns and is a proficient shooter. While we were on the range Prince Rashid (seen below with one of the owners of Mission X) arrived. He commands Jordan's Special Police Force and presumably visited the competition because several of his men were competing. His Royal Highness Prince Rashid bin El Hassan is an excellent shooter as well, which we were able to observe first hand – he is, by all accounts, a man of great tactical proficiency (and is apparently greatly respected, even revered, by his men.)

We'll hopefully tell you more about SWAT 30 and other elements of the Prince's command in the near future.

Overall it was another interesting and informative day today. We were able to spend some time with personnel from the Canadian Special Operations Regiment (CSOR) as well as those of a relatively new Dutch SOF unit, and were able to talk to some of the Chinese competitors. The latter, happily, appear to have thawed a bit, though they remain fiercely focused. I'm not entirely certain exactly what was said but I believe the Chinese General in attendance promised to talk to us and tell us about their teams tomorrow. Hopefully soon have the opportunity to write more about those units, their kit and preferred firearms soon. We also noticed many previously unseen flags on observers, including that of Indonesia and one that appeared to be Chechen.

The final event is tomorrow morning and the award ceremony late tomorrow afternoon. We can't advise team standings or who is in the lead yet, but it sounds like the ones a the top are all very close in times and points.

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