A NEW training facility is helping to teach Royal Marines how to use the Viking advanced armoured vehicle.

The Viking Training Company set-up at the Royal Armoured Corps' Armour Centre in Bovington was officially opened yesterday by Rear- Admiral Paul Lambert.

He said: "Such training has real importance towards getting the military capability we need."

On show were more than a dozen examples of the Viking, the first armoured vehicle to be operated by the Royal Marines for more than 50 years.

Dubbed the Battlefield Taxi, the amphibious Vikings are armoured, all-terrain vehicles capable of operating in a wide range of temperatures anywhere in the world.

Defence Procurement Minister Lord Bach said Viking was the right solution for the Royal Marines, adding: "They need a vehicle that can cope with a variety of terrain, provide protection from enemy fire and be easily transportable by air."

Vikings consist of two tracked vehicle units linked by a steering mechanism capable of being helicopter lifted as a whole or in two sections.

The officer commanding Viking Training Camp, Major Jez Hermer said the 10-ton vehicle's powerful 5.9-litre engine meant it was capable of up to 50mph on roads and could carry four in the front unit and eight fully equipped marines in the rear cab.

He added: "I have been on this project for three and a half years, I have run all the trials and I am now running training.

"Bovington is perfect for us because the training area here is specifically designed to train armoured vehicle crews and because it has all the facilities we need from cross-country tracks to gunnery ranges and amphibious areas."

He added that Bovington was the ideal place to put the £500,000 Viking and crews through their paces.

All this will create one civilian post and bring at least a dozen Royal Marine families to Bovington.

Conversion to the new equipment by 42 Commando Royal Marines starts this month.