Survival and Field Living

FLD 250 · Fieldcraft, Tactics, and Soldiering · Level 200 (all ranks)

A Royal Army College course on staying alive and effective in the field: the survival situation and the will to survive, the priorities of survival, and the skills of shelter, water, fire, food, being found, and disciplined field living.

Course length: 10 hours, studied online and asynchronously at the student's own pace, together with any in-person practical instruction and assessment the course requires.

Foreword

A soldier of a small humanitarian home-defence force may find themselves, in the course of their tasks, having to survive and live in the field with little: cut off by a flood, stranded by a storm, lost or delayed on a search, or simply working far from support for longer than expected. The ability to stay alive and effective in such situations, to protect oneself from the elements, find and make safe water, make fire, manage food, attract rescue, and live in the field with discipline, is a real and valuable skill, and it can be the difference between a hard situation endured and a tragedy. This course teaches that ability: the principles and skills of survival and field living, so that a soldier who finds themselves having to survive in the field can do so, and bring themselves and others through.

The course teaches survival as the disciplined application of a few sound priorities, not as a collection of tricks. The heart of survival is understanding what actually threatens life and in what order, so that effort goes to the right things in the right order, and holding the will to survive that carries a person through. The course is built for a small humanitarian home-defence force, and it teaches survival in that spirit: survival to stay alive and effective and to bring oneself and others through a hard situation to safety, not the survival of evasion or lethal field-craft, which are no part of this course. It draws on and points to the College's specialist courses where they go deeper, the cold-weather course for surviving the cold, navigation for finding the way and attracting help, and field health for water safety and hygiene, while teaching the general principles of survival and field living that apply across situations.

How this course works

This is an intermediate practical course for all ranks, studied online lesson by lesson, with its skills taught and practised in person in the field. It assumes Recruit Training (RMT 101) and builds on the fieldcraft and field-living foundations there. It is closely related to Cold-Weather Operations and Survival (FLD 240), which deepens survival in the cold, to Navigation and Fieldcraft (FLD 201), which teaches finding the way and attracting help, and to Combat First Aid (MED 201) and Field Health, Hygiene, and Sanitation (MED 210), which it draws on for casualty care and water safety.

Structure

Where this sits

FLD 250 is a Level-200 course in the College's Fieldcraft, Tactics, and Soldiering school, building on Recruit Training (RMT 101). It is the general survival and field-living course, and it works alongside the specialist courses that go deeper in their areas: Cold-Weather Operations and Survival (FLD 240) for the cold, Navigation and Fieldcraft (FLD 201) for finding the way and attracting help, and Field Health (MED 210) and Combat First Aid (MED 201) for water safety, hygiene, and casualty care. It serves the soldier who must survive and live in the field in the course of the Army's humanitarian and home-defence tasks.

A note on sources

This is the College's own course, written fresh in Kaharagian and Commonwealth terms on the established principles of survival and field living, adapting recognised survival teaching rather than reproducing it, and teaching survival in the humanitarian and defensive spirit of this Army, to stay alive and bring oneself and others through, not the survival of evasion or lethal field-craft. It is written in formal British English and carries Crown Copyright. Its examples are illustrative and use generic settings, since the Principality holds no territory of its own.

Crown Copyright © 2026 | Published by Authority of H.R.H. The Prince of Kaharagia