Page 5 - 1RHA 2023

1st Regiment Royal Horse Artillery
Commanding Officer’s Foreword Lieutenant Colonel J H A Luck RHA
It is a profound joy to be, once again, at 1st Regiment Royal Horse Artillery and a keenly felt privilege to have assumed command back in June. Context is everything. Drastically different from
when I was in the Regiment last, just 10 years ago and deploying on its tours of Afghanistan, our focus has reverted to that more familiar to a previous generation; that of an aggressive Russia. “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes” as Mark Twain is reputed to have said. What is undoubtedly constant, however, remains: the demands of our shared profession of arms; the self- imposed standards to which the Regiment holds itself; and the habit of excellence which ensures our soldiers meet both of these requirements.
This focus has provided a unifying purpose for the Regiment as we continue to make history. It has manifested itself, firstly, in the commencement of two years of battery deployments to Estonia - as part of NATO’s enhanced forward presence in the Baltics to deter Russian aggression there, reassure our allies, and being prepared to defend it tenaciously if required - and, secondly, in the active support in equipment and training to the Armed Forces of Ukraine in their existential fight against Russia. For the former, at the time of writing, E Battery have just returned from our first Op CABRIT roulement of this cycle, having performed excellently as part of the Queen’s Royal Hussars Battle Group, and are about to depart on well-earned leave. They have handed the baton over the B Battery, who are now deployed in First Fusiliers Battle Group, well prepared following a full Mission Readiness Training progression.
The second aspect, of support to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, made the news rather more. It began incrementally but became almost all consuming, and with a significant impact for the Royal Regiment as a whole. As you will read later in the journal, the ini- tial requirement to generate five AS90 in January 2023 to deliver to the Royal School of Artillery as training platforms for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, quickly grew to include the preparation of all our Guns, and others,’ in order to Grant in Kind to Ukraine. The flexibility of thought, planning and dogged hard work required by all batteries and departments, against accelerating timelines, was humbling and brought praise from the Army and Defence for its genuinely strategic effect.
However, despite the granting of the Regiment’s Guns, the expe- rience of our soldiers has been different to what the newspapers’ military commentators conjectured. The batteries deployed on Op CABRIT are still fighting AS90, and therefore so are those on their training progression to get there. As I write, the Chestnut Troop Gun Group have four of the 12 AS90 that the Royal School of Artillery maintain deployed on Salisbury Plain as part of a Bri- gade exercise, fitted with TES to test their manoeuvre within a combined arms context. This is critical activity as we renew our Regimental Warfighting competency. The path from last year’s Ex CYPHER DAGGER, through Ex CYPHER SHARPEN to the current Ex SCORPION CYLONE/IRON TITAN has seen the pro- gression towards Regimentally controlled fire and manoeuvre of Gun and Tac Groups by data and voice. The current exercise too has simply provided invaluable time spent on armour, blowing away the cob-webs for some and learning from scratch for many, deepening our institutional experience and developing the men- tal resilience of the younger members of our team.
The Regiment adopted its Future Soldier OrBat this year and immediately prior to summer leave welcomed the return home of L (Néry) Battery RHA; just in time to celebrate Néry Day in the Regiment, hastily re-role to armour, and deploy on exercise to Live Fire and support the Royal Lancers. We therefore have our team set, unified by an operational focus, and ever increasingly well prepared.
There is lots to look forward to at the end of the year and through- out the next. O (Headquarters) Battery RHA’s Brigade Joint Fires Cell will deploy to Germany in November with HQ 20 Armoured Brigade Combat Team, as they progress towards their brigade- level validation next year on Ex CERBERUS. E Battery will tem- porarily convert to Light Gun ahead of being the first 1 RHA bat- tery to convert to Archer, most likely at the end of the year. The Chestnut Troop will continue their training with 5 Rifles to enable them to deploy to Estonia throughout 2024, with L Battery mir- roring them six months later. Regimentally we will continue to hone our War Fighting competence, physically, conceptually and morally, through enjoyable, purposeful and demanding activities and exercises.
Underpinning all of this activity is the warp and weft of Regimen- tal life: sport, of whatever standard and ability, adventure training, mess life, comradeship and ceremony. It will continue next year, with a Coronation Medals Parade and a parade to celebrate the Royal Regiment adopting the new Colours, in Archer. There is so much to look forward to.
Finally, my thanks go to Captain Matt Major for editing this year’s journal, I hope you enjoy reading it.
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