By Gareth Jones BBC Wales business editor

Realistic exercises will help the QDG tour Iraq for six months

As part of the 20th Armoured Brigade, the QDG will be carrying out reconnaissance missions and helping to train Iraqi security forces.

More than 300 soldiers are to be stationed at two bases in southern Iraq, at Al Amarah and at As Samawah.

For some of the men, this will be their third tour of Iraq in as many years.

So far, with two-thirds of the regiment from Wales, it has suffered mercifully few casualties.

But security conditions have worsened recently and now the number of British soldiers killed since the invasion in 2003 stands at 104.

I'm now confident we're ready for what may be our most challenging tour there yet Lt-Col Anthony Pittman

Trooper Ieuan Jenkins from Tredegar, south Wales, is having to sit out the first few weeks of the operation back in the regiment's German headquarters in Osnabruck.

He is 17 but on his 18th birthday next month he will be flying out to join his comrades.

He admitted to being nervous, but said he was surrounded by soldiers of the highest calibre and experience.

"At the end of the day, we're all going to be relying on each other and the drills and skills we've been learning,' he said.

The regiment has been training hard. A team from BBC Wales recently became the first civilian crew from the UK to film new facilities at the army's training base at Sennelarger in Germany.

The Queen's Dragoon Guards training at Sennelarger, Germany

Known as 'Tin City' by generations of soldiers who have been going there to train for Northern Ireland, the base is a huge mock-up of Belfast.

But over the years it has been updated to reflect the new world disorder, including a street of Bosnian-style shops.

The latest addition is a mock Arabian bazaar and during training it is thronged with people posing as Iraqi troublemakers.

They are men and women from another British regiment dressed in Arab clothing, whose job is to riot and test the QDG's ability to deal with violent public order situations.

This is not play-acting. We watched as they dealt with fists, boots, projectiles, blank rounds and even petrol bombs.

But the regiment came through the exercise extremely well, according to the army's instructors.

It is possible that the QDG will encounter extreme violence from crowds at some time in their six-month tour of Iraq but their biggest fear is improvised explosive devices and suicide bombers.

The training also emphasises the need to build cultural bridges

However, the training at Sennelarger also emphasises the need to build cultural bridges with the Iraqi population.

Soldiers are taught how to conduct themselves in the country. Iraqis are brought in to take them through various scenarios and Arabic lessons are compulsory.

Lt-Col Anthony Pittman, the QDG's commanding officer, says the training at Sennelarger was absolutely vital in preparing the regiment for Iraq.

"I'm now confident we're ready for what may be our most challenging tour there yet," he added.