Page 14 - 103RA 2018-20

103 Regiment Royal Artillery
Training Year 2019/2020
The winter of 2019/2020 was eventful for the Bty in repre- senting Army sport, with soldiers and officers representing the Regiment on Nordic Skiing competitions and Snowboarding Teams for the Gunners. However, as those personnel returned from mainland Europe in January 2020, the global COVID-19 pandemic was spreading fast and, though we didn’t know it yet, life was about to change significantly.
COVID-19 posed two significant and distinctly different chal- lenges to the wider Field Army and to 103RA specifically. First, the question of operational resources to support the national effort against COVID-19. Secondly, the ability to continue to deliver training in support of the Brigade Commander’s intent to hold Artillery Force Elements at Readiness for conventional warfighting.
209 Battery – COVID-19 – Operational Support
The early days of the COVID-19 pandemic were uncertain. Some elements of the Government’s response (including the elements which involved the military) were familiar problems and ones that are rehearsed and relatively well understood, e.g plans for flooding, counter
local contingency operations such as mortuary management, medical logistics, back-fill for the emergency services and a range of other tasks. Mobilising this number of military personnel en masse has not been done at this scale since the
to drive oxygen tankers, medics to deploy to the Nightingale Hospitals and more Liaison Officers to work with local authori- ties and the emergency services.
As the situation with COVID-19 developed, the decision was taken not to mobilise 103 RA en masse. A national lock-down strategy significantly slowed the virus and the local authorities and emergency services were indeed impacted, but not as catastrophically as initially predicted. The local authorities and higher military formations assess- ment of challenges faced was that indi- vidual augmentees to advisor positions and specialist trade roles was the best way to utilise reserve forces, until the situation changed. 103 RA has since mobilised several individuals and prepared several others to be held at high readiness.
terror etc. However, the
problems posed by disrup-
tion from COVID were poten-
tially greater and more wide-
reaching than anything that
had been routinely planned
for. One of the first things to
happen was the mobilisa-
tion of BC 209 Bty into a key
Military Liaison Officer role
with Greater Manchester Police. This left the Bty under the responsibility of the Permanemt Staff Administration Officer, a temporary acting 2iC (Lt) and the permanent staff – G7 etc.
In the first instance, very little was known scientifically and medically about the nature of the virus. The initial planning for contingencies were taking into account mortality management, the back-fill of the emergency services for routine taskings or for large scale public unrest and a myriad of other complex and unfamiliar problems. As the picture became clearer about how communities would best be supported to respond to these issues, it was identified that military reservists came with signifi- cant operational benefits: geographically they know the areas in which they live and work, they have existing relationships with local organisations and resources, and using regional assets in situ limits regional spread by not moving large bodies of soldiers from elsewhere in the UK. 103RA was asked to prepare to mobilise a full bty at strength (3 x troops) in support of
requests were coming in for heavy good drivers to drive oxygen tankers
second world war. This fact was striking and focused the minds of those personnel across the Regiment who were preparing for such a monumental administration task. This was led at RHQ by the RAO and executed at 209 Bty by the PSAO. It involved background checks, medical paperwork, wills, death-in-
service letters, civilian employer compli- ance and a mountain of other administra- tion. By the second week of April, requests were coming in for heavy goods drivers
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