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 on 1 August 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 1950s. 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 Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery – attached to the 7th Brigade at Enoggera Barracks in Queensland.
- Operations Support Battery
- 104th (Observation Post) Battery
- 105th (Observation Post) Battery
- 114th (Observation Post) Battery
- A (Gun) Battery
- Combat Service Support Battery
- 4th Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery – attached to the 3rd Brigade at Townsville in Queensland.
- Operations Support Battery
- 106th (Observation Post) Battery
- 108th (Observation Post) Battery
- 109th (Observation Post) Battery
- 107th (Gun) Battery
- Combat Service Support Battery
- 8th/12th Medium Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery – this regiment is attached to the 1st Brigade at Palmerston in the Northern Territory.
- Operations Support Battery
- 101st (Observation Post) Battery
- 102st (Observation Post) Battery
- 115th (Observation Post) Battery
- 103rd (Gun) Battery
- Combat Service Support 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
Read more about this topic: Royal Australian Artillery
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