Navy News
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Formidable firepower - 14 shooters take aim standing up next to their foxholes
20 July 2026
A combined Royal Marines-Royal Navy team of experts marksmen took the UK Armed Forces top prize for shooting for only the fourth time in 117 years.
The Senior Service shooters triumphed at the InterServices Operational Shooting Contest, proving to be superior than their Army and RAF counterparts on the range at Hythe in Kent.
The nine strong team comprised Royal Marines from 30 Commando and CTCRM in Lympstone under their captain Petty Officer Chris McIntyre.
All used the new KS1 rifle – which proved to show marked improvements over the traditional SA80 A2, the UK military’s standard-issue weapon.
The RN/RM shooters had already proven themselves at Bisley during the RN Operational Shooting Contest, hosted at the National Shooting Centre in Surrey.
Thirty shooters competed for the top prize, the King’s Medal, as they worked through 22 live-firing serials over a fortnight – shooting standing, prone, or sitting, kneeling; standing still or running; with pistol and rifle at ranges from 500 metres down to just ten.
The event is a military training exercise – not a sporting event – which uses competition to encourage and drive participants to achieve the highest standards possible.
The focus is on developing instinctive combat marksmanship: who can fire the better shot, faster, under pressure – still vital in an age of drones and missiles – so that delivering a well-aimed shot calmly and confidently becomes second nature.
The King’s Medal for Champion Shot of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines — the United Kingdom’s highest award for military marksmanship.
The winner – this year Yorkshireman Sergeant ‘Robbo’ Robinson – was carried around in a Sedan Chair (a long-standing military tradition).
He received a provisional presentation by the Royal Navy’s Commander Operations, Major General Rich Cantrill RM on behalf of the Fleet Commander.
And last week, accompanied by his partner Rachel, an NHS paramedic, he received the medal itself from His Majesty King Charles, who also decorated the top shots in the Army and RAF.
It’s the second time Robbo has aimed for the prize; he was placed seventh at his first attempt in 2023.
In addition, as a mark of their exceptional shooting, nine other shooters earned the Service Marksman (Navy 10) badge which they will wear on parade uniforms for the rest of their careers.
There was also the Senior Officer’s Pistol Competition which attracted ten firers. Commodore Matt Flegg from Navy HQ in Portsmouth won the trophy by a single point.