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The Royal Regiment of Australian Artillery

The Royal Regiment of Australian Artillery is descended from the original colonial artillery units prior to Australia's federation. Australia’s first guns were landed from HMS Sirius and a small earthen redoubt built, near the present day Macquarie Place, to command the approaches to Sydney Cove. The deployment of these guns represents the origins of artillery in Australia. These and subsequent defences, as well as field guns, were operated by marines and the soldiers of infantry regiments stationed in Australia. The first Royal Artillery unit arrived in Australia in 1856 and began a succession of gunner units which ended with the withdrawal of the imperial forces in 1870 resulting in the raising of 'A' Field Battery, NSW Artillery in 1871. The First World War saw the raising of 60 field, 20 howitzer and two siege batteries along with the heavy and medium trench mortar batteries. Until 19 September 1962 the Australian Artillery was referred to as the 'Royal Australian Artillery', however on this date HM Queen Elizabeth II granted the RAA the title of the 'Royal Regiment of Australian Artillery'. The Regiment today consists of Regular and Reserve units:

 

Regular Army

Unlike their British and Canadian relations, there are no regiments of horse artillery in the order of battle of the Royal Australian Artillery. The Australian Regular Army came into being in 1947 and prior to this artillery units were predominately militia based. The one permanent artillery unit was 'A' Field Battery which formed in 1871. Prior to the Second World War specialist coastal artillery units were established at strategic locations around the coastline, however these were progressively phased out by the 1950's. During the Second World War, the RAA raised some 50 regiments of anti-tank, anti-aircraft, field, medium and coastal units with all units engaged in combat throughout the war.

The present School of Artillery (completed in 1998) is located in Puckapunyal in central Victoria and maintains modern training facilities. The School of Artillery is co-located with the Australian Army's Headquarters Combined Arms Training Centre. Major units of the Royal Australian Artillery include:

  • 1st Field Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery - this is a close support regiment attached to the 7th Brigade at Enoggera Barracks in Queensland. It is equipped with the L119 Howitzer Field Gun.
    • 13 Field Battery
    • 41 Medium Battery
    • 105 Medium Battery
  • 4th Field Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery - this is a close support regiment attached to the 3rd Brigade at Townsville in Queensland. It is equipped with the L119 Howitzer Field Gun.
    • 107 Field Battery
    • 108 Field Battery
    • A Field Battery
  • 8th/12th Medium Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery - this is a general support regiment attached to the 1st Brigade at Palmerston in the Northern Territory. It is equipped with the M198 Howitzer.
    • 101 Medium Battery
    • 103 Medium Battery
  • 16th Air Defence Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery - this is the Australian Army's sole air defence regiment, and is based at Woodside in South Australia. It is equipped with the RBS-70 Surface to Air missile.
    • 110 Battery
    • 111 Battery
  • 20th Surveillance and Target Acquisition Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery - Equipped with weapon locating radars, meteorology and survey troops, and Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, it is located at Enoggera Barracks in Brisbane Queensland.
    • 131 Surveillance and Target Acquisition Battery
    • 132 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Battery

 

Army Reserve

  • 2nd/10th Field Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery - This is a general support regiment attached to 4th Brigade at St Kilda in Victoria.
    • 22 Field Battery Dandenong
    • 38 Field Battery Geelong
  • 3rd Field Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery - this is a close support regiment that consists of a single battery. It is attached to 13th Brigade at Karrakatta in Western Australia, and is equipped with the M2A2 Field Gun.
    • 7 Field Battery
  • 6th/13th Field Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery - this regiment does not strictly exist; its two former batteries reverted to independent status in 1997. Both are attached to 9th Brigade, and are based at Launceston in Tasmania and Keswick in South Australia. They are equipped with the M2A2 Field Gun.
    • 16 Field Battery
    • 48 Field Battery
  • 7th Field Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery - this is a close support regiment attached to 8th Brigade at Pymble in New South Wales. It is equipped with he L119 Field Gun.
  • 23rd Field Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery - this is a close support regiment attached to 5th Brigade at Kogarah in New South Wales. It is equipped with the L119 Field Gun.

 

Future development

The Royal Australian Artillery coordinates and plans Joint Offensive Support for the Australian Defence Force and is presently studying options that will see significant changes in its structure for the future. The RAA applies the latest technologies to maximise the effectiveness of the extant fleet of towed guns. The RAA is further studying options to upgrade and update ammunition and fuzes to be used with the present and future gun fleets.

There are no present plans for expansion of the RAA as part of the Army's Hardened and Networked Army project. However the Australian Army will invest considerably in the re-equipment, restructuring and re-rolling of various RAA units. Current Australian Army planning calls for Regular Army RAA units to be structured and equipped with highly mobile, longer ranging and less manpower intensive weapon systems that are to be fully digitally networked by 2012.

 

Land 17 artillery replacement

This programme is trialling new systems with a view to replacement of all 155 mm M198 medium guns and 105 mm L119 and M2A2 field guns as well as the adoption of an integrated digital fire control network structure. The project has several hundred million dollars allocated for the purchase of new guns, through life support and maintenance, replacement infrastructure, retraining of personnel and provision of simulation and training systems. However, Land 17 does not allow for the purchase of new guns in sufficient quantity to re-equip the Army Reserve. Final short listed contenders for Land 17 gun replacement are:

SP Guns:

  • PzH 2000 155mm SP Gun (Germany/Holland).
  • K9 Thunder 155mm SP Gun (South Korea).
  • G6 155mm SP Gun (South Africa).
  • Bofors ARCHER 155mm SP Gun (Sweden).

Towed Gun Replacement:

  • M777 155mm Lightweight Medium Howitzer (USA).
  • Pegasus 155mm Lightweight Medium Howitzer (Singapore) - Has limited SP maneuverability.

 

Land 19 Short Range Air Defence

Ground Based Air Defence has recently been equipped with additional RBS-70 systems and a significant upgrade of radar and monitoring systems. This project is forecast to meet the Army's needs until 2015 where future forecast planning calls for a significant upgrade of the longer ranging air defence capability from 2018.

  • Surveillance and Target Acquisition. Recently, a new regiment, 20 Surveillance and Target Acquisition Regiment, has been raised for the operation of UAVs to be used in both the reconnaissance and attack roles. The new regiment incorporates the former independent 131 Surveillance and Target Acquisition Battery, together with the newly formed UAV battery.
  • Land 58 AN-TPQ36 Weapon Locating Radar Life of Type Extension. This project seeks to extend the fully functional operational life of the weapon locating radars to 2015.

FROM WIKIPEDIA

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