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Battery
Commander’s Foreword
148 Cdo FO Bty
Battery Commander
Maj H Wallace RA
Battery Captain
WO2 J Fenton
Battery Sergeant Major
WO2 (BSM) S Parkin
Maj H Wallace RA
It has been a decade since I last served with 148 Bty as a Team Commander when the 50th anniversary journal was produced, and I am fortunate enough to be back here once again as we commemorate the 60th. Whilst much has changed in the Army over the last 10 years there are some areas which remain constant and it is reassuring to see that in 148 Bty, the high quality of the soldiers, levels of professionalism and opportunity are still as relevant now as they have been in years gone by. We may be a small sub-unit tucked away in the backwaters of Poole but our reach is global in any given training year and our greatest asset, our soldiers and officers, continue to occupy the lion’s share not only of key Regimental appoint- ments but also across the wider Royal Artillery and Special Forces community.
The Bty remains the lead in UK Defence as Naval Gunfire Support specialists and continues to work with international partners from the United States Marine Corps in the West, Dutch Marines in Europe and Norwegian Reconnaissance Bty in the High North, out to the East and its long standing commitment to the Five Powers Defence Agreement in the South China Sea. We are in the twilight of the 4.5 inch era before the new 5 inch gun comes in to service which ensures the future of Naval Gunfire area fires but 148 Bty are some way in to a journey which sees Deep Maritime Fires in the form of Precision Guided Munitions as part of our capability in the future. We continue to invest time and effort in to developing our targeting expertise with the aspiration to put targeteers in OPs and
closer to the target which will make us more widely employable and enable us to maintain relevance in the fast paced development of strike in the littoral environment where 148 Bty is very much in the vanguard.
We are not only adjusting our role of covert recon- naissance to suit the developing weapon systems of the future but also the kit and equipment which enable us to do this. Teams are better equipped than they ever have been before making them more lethal, more effective and with better communication systems, yet still operating in a broad spectrum of environments whether it be the jungles of Brunei, the Arctic of Finland and Norway, the desert of Oman or the more traditional maritime climate of the Highland and Islands of Scotland. We have also made significant gains in mobility which is the key to delivering the effect and recent advances in insertion methods and investment in equipment makes the high readiness teams more readily deployable by land, sea or air.
As 3 Commando Brigade surges forward to deliver the Commando Force of the future, 148 Bty are very much part of this journey and whilst the Reconnais- sance Strike Teams of today look very different to the Fire Support Teams of my day and the Forward Observation Officer Parties before this, they are still underpinned by the same Commando qualities that were at the heart of Combined Operation forces at their inception and just as relevant today as the eyes and the ears for the amphibious raiding force as they were in 1940.
148 Bty took part in a SRS para insert onto Ex COLD RESPONSE 20 in the arctic high north of Norway
WE MAY BE A SMALL SUB- UNIT TUCKED AWAY IN THE BACKWATERS OF POOLE BUT OUR REACH IS GLOBAL IN ANY GIVEN TRAINING YEAR AND OUR GREATEST ASSET, OUR SOLDIERS AND OFFICERS, CONTINUE TO OCCUPY THE LION’S SHARE
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