The Killing House, a shoot house, is the

Special Air Service The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling and in 1950, it was reconstituted as a corps. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-terro ...

's prime training facility for hostage rescue operations. The point of the Killing House is to train the SAS operatives to enter a room and be able to assess the situation and shoot any threats. The Counter-Terrorism team of SAS uses it for Close Quarter Battle training (CQB). The Killing House is located at the Stirling Lines barracks, near Hereford. It is a two storey building with four rooms on each level. It is designed just like a conventional building, with furniture, pictures, toilets, etc. The building has special rubber-coated walls to absorb bullets, extractor fans to clear out fumes, and video cameras in corners to record the action in the rooms. Each room has at least one metal target. The idea of the Killing House has been adopted by other elite units, including America's

Delta Force The 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment–Delta (1st SFOD-D), referred to variously as Delta Force, Combat Applications Group (CAG), Army Compartmented Elements (ACE), "The Unit", or within Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), Task Fo ...

, the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

Israeli special forces Special forces units in the Israel Defense Forces encompass a broad definition of specialist units. Such units are usually a regiment or a battalion in strength. Sayeret ( he, סיירת, pl.: ''sayarot''), or ''reconnaissance'' units in the ...

, FSK (of Norway).

Training the royal family

The SAS also use the Killing House as part of the training members of the British royal family receive for

hostage A hostage is a person seized by an abductor in order to compel another party, one which places a high value on the liberty, well-being and safety of the person seized, such as a relative, employer, law enforcement or government to act, or ref ...

situations. Each royal and their partner is provided with black overalls, marked with "his" and "hers", where they then play the role of "hostages" and are put in a room in the Killing House surrounded by targets of cutout "terrorists" while the SAS conduct a

live fire exercise A live-fire exercise (LFX) is a military exercise in which live ammunition and ordnance (as opposed to blanks or dummies) is expended. The term can also be found in non-military usage. Armed services Armed services usually use live-fire exercis ...

to rescue them. The purpose of this training is so that, should they ever be taken hostage, the royals know how to react to such a rescue and do not endanger themselves. The training also includes recognising potential threats, defensive driving, and how to interact with kidnappers.

King Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to a ...

and his then wife

Diana, Princess of Wales Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her ac ...

attended this training in 1983. Prior to the exercise he signed a humorous letter that remains on the wall at Stirling Lines:

“Should this demonstration go wrong I, the undersigned Prince of Wales, will not commit B Squadron 22 Special Air Service Regiment to the
Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...
. Charles.”

In the subsequent exercise a flash-bang set fire to Princess Diana's hair, with her

lady in waiting A lady-in-waiting or court lady is a female personal assistant at a court, attending on a royal woman or a high-ranking noblewoman. Historically, in Europe, a lady-in-waiting was often a noblewoman but of lower rank than the woman to whom sh ...

having to trim it back into shape prior to them leaving due to the secrecy of the exercise. Other royals believed to have attended this training include

Prince William William, Prince of Wales, (William Arthur Philip Louis; born 21 June 1982) is the heir apparent to the British throne. He is the elder son of King Charles III and his first wife Diana, Princess of Wales. Born in London, William was educat ...

Prince Harry Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, (Henry Charles Albert David; born 15 September 1984) is a member of the British royal family. He is the younger son of Charles III and his first wife Diana, Princess of Wales. He is fifth in the line of succ ...

, and their wives

Catherine Katherine, also spelled Catherine, and other variations are feminine names. They are popular in Christian countries because of their derivation from the name of one of the first Christian saints, Catherine of Alexandria. In the early Christ ...

and Meghan, as well as the late

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

References

Special Air Service Army training installations {{UK-mil-stub