Royal Marine Reservists will abseil down the side of the Cunard Building today as Liverpool gears up to host Armed Forces Day.

A huge banner will also be unveiled to mark 100 days until the city honours its armed forces community with a range of events and activities this summer.

Uniformed personnel from the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force will gather on the waterfront today (16 March) to see a ‘100’ banner cover the famous building.

Liverpool was announced as the official host of national Armed Forces Day by the Ministry of Defence in July 2016, following a bidding process.

A parade of around 1,000 serving personnel, veterans, cadets and marching bands will signal the start of celebrations on 24 June.

Stepping-off from St George’s Hall plateau at 11am, the parade will travel through the city centre, culminating at Princes Parade where a salute will be given to a number of special guests and dignitaries.

Activities will take place across the waterfront with zones dedicated to all three military services.

In these zones, military assets will be showcased ranging from static aircraft, survival equipment, a bomb disposal robot, tanks and armoured vehicles.

A display arena will be located next to the Liverpool Cruise Terminal passenger lounge which will give visitors the chance to see a number of capability demonstrations including a Royal Marines unarmed combat display and military marching bands, right through to RAF dog handling exercises, an Army bridge building demo and a field gun race between a team from RAF Cosford and the aircraft carrier, HMS Prince of Wales.

It’s expected that a naval vessel will be docked at the cruise liner berth which will be open to visitors, and a number of fly pasts will take place throughout the day to entertain the thousands who are expected to head to the waterfront.

Topping the bill of the aviation assets will be the Red Arrows, alongside jets and helicopters currently in service and historic aircraft from the RN and RAF’s past.

A full programme will be unveiled in the forthcoming months.

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