Tenby: Military hold awareness stunt in middle of the night

Drones formed the shape of a bucket and spade over Tenby in the middle of the night

No-one could question the sense of a 100-drone display to highlight the dangers of military firing ranges.

But the Ministry of Defence (MoD) held its event in the middle of the night - when most people were in bed.

Anyone not fast asleep would have seen the sky lit up by buzzing craft forming the shapes of helicopters, kites and a bucket and spade.

The show, in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, was to illustrate how calm surroundings can turn into combat zones.

It aimed to raise awareness of the risks of entering military land, where there can be live firing, unexploded bombs and fast-moving vehicles.

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Tenby was picked because it is close to the MoD's Castlemartin range.

Anyone who managed to stay awake would have also seen them form this kite

An MoD spokesman said: "Despite best efforts, unfortunately we were unable to host the general public at the drone display in Tenby as planned.

"To maximise the chance of a successful flight we took the decision to capture content in the early hours of Wednesday." 

The display had been planned for Tuesday, 1 August, but was called off because of wind conditions.

But that was cancelled and it was eventually held it at 04:00 on Wednesday, 16 August.

According to the MoD there were about 3,000 occasions where people dangerously entered UK military training land between September 2021 and September 2022, with almost 10% classed as near-misses.

These included people walking across live-firing ranges and areas of pyrotechnics and explosives, dogs running into training areas and people picking up military debris.