Page 42 - Bugle Issue 20 Autumn 2022

6 RIFLES
Remotely Piloted Air Systems (RPAS)
One of the great strengths of the
Army Reserve is the diversity of both backgrounds and professions of Riflemen and Officers. Within 6 RIFLES there are Police officers, NHS workers, electricians, software engineers, IT specialists, water sports instructors and geologists to
name but a few. This diversity presents opportunities to share knowledge amongst the unit potentially increasing its awareness and effectiveness.
A recent example of knowledge sharing was a presentation titled “Introduction
to Remotely Piloted Air Systems (RPAS)” delivered by Rfn Coombs an Aerospace Engineer with AeroVironment RPAS. He took the opportunity to brief on the definitions, applications, regulatory framework, detailed technical specifications and future capabilities.
Rfn Coombs gave an on overview of the civilian and military applications of RPAS,
focusing on the application of Unarmed RPAS including Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance, Targeting, Communications support, Electronic Warfare, movement support and other user requirements. There was a discussion of how RPAS may be deployed; ranging from a Sub 250 g Open
A1 RPAS (for example Black Hornet or Loki 2) deployed tactically by a Section or Platoon within visual line of sight for force projection and target identification, to an Armed Certified category RPAS (for example Reaper or Protector) deployed as a strategic asset.
The presentation concluded with a discussion of Loitering Munitions and a lookahead to future RPAS capabilities in Defence.
If you are currently looking to obtain an RPAS for MOD use, it is recommended that you join the MOD-Defence RPAS Network in MS Teams which is aimed at educating individuals on how to procure RPAS and
build robust processes which will ensure the appropriate regulations are correctly adhered to. It includes a ‘Beginner’s Guide’ along with many other useful channels. Whilst Rfn Coombs has now moved role to Chinook DT, please feel free to contact him on MODNET (jesse.coombs106) if you have any RPAS related questions.
Rfn Coombs gave an on overview of RPAS
A bugler from The Salamanca Band and Bugles of 6 RIFLES played on the battlefield of Salamanca, where the Duke of Wellington dealt the first fatal blow to Napoleon, for the first time since the battle 200 years ago.
At the Arapiles monument, set atop the hill from where the French commander Marmont was evacuated when struck by shrapnel in the opening moments of the battle, The Last Post carried across fields of golden wheat.
The village of Arapiles, which is set amid the five-mile-long battlefield – a protected site befitting its status as one of the best preserved in the world – decked itself out in Union flags and the mayor Audacio Viloria laid on a spread of local fare to welcome the Salamanca Band and Bugles.
“It’s an honour for us to receive you,” he told his guests at the village museum, recalling how British visitors are beginning to return in numbers after the pandemic, and how they “treat the battlefield almost religiously.”
There was a definite air of communion with the past as the final notes of the Last Post drifted away and representatives of the British, Spanish and Portuguese forces whose forebears fought here centuries ago stood to attention for two minutes silence.
“It sends shivers down the spine to hear the bugles of the Salamanca Band echo across the fields of Arapiles after 210 years,” said Hugh Elliott, the British Ambassador to Spain. “It is truly remarkable to stand here and imagine a hundred thousand soldiers locked in combat.”
In full dress uniform, they hung on historian Raul Bellido’s description as he explained
the order of battle and the moment when Wellington tossed aside a chicken leg and cried “By God, that will do!” as he spotted
42 RIFLES The Bugle
BUGLERS AT SALAMANCA
Marmont’s error in allowing his left flank to become separated from his main army, giving the Allied forces their opportunity.
“It feels amazing to be here finally, to play the Last Post in the fields of Arapiles... I don’t think it’s sunk in yet that we finally made it here,” said Warrant Officer Richard Cregan. “We have travelled all over the world to play, but this tops everything.”
Later the band, still in uniform, brought the house down in Salamanca’s Plaza Mayor, with soul music classics in front of thousands of locals whose enthusiasm could have matched the rapturous reception for Wellington’s liberation of the city – and where to this day the Duke of Wellington is the only foreigner honoured with his portrait on one of the square’s arches.
We have travelled all over the world to play, but this tops everything