Page 20 - 1RHA 2024

1st Regiment Royal Horse Artillery
L (Néry) Battery RHA Major A M Charlton RHA, Battery Commander
It is a continued honour and privilege to be writing this fore- word as the Battery Commander of L (Néry) Battery. Having spent the last two years as the Battery Commander, I have seen
first-hand the steadfast dedication and professionalism of the men, women, officers, NCOs and soldiers within the Battery. This year can best be described as one of change – we successfully resubordinated and have now fully converted onto our armoured platforms. The Battery is almost unrecognisable from a year ago; we now have a full complement of workforce and have achieved ‘FOC’ as a fully armoured TAC Group. The previous 12 months have seen L (Néry) Battery complete a relentless – though highly rewarding – “Mission Ready Training” pathway to prepare and validate us supporting the RDG BG on Op CABRIT 15 in Sept of this year. I am pleased to report that the Battery remain in high spirits, and are well equipped and ready to deploy on Operations.
Ex SCORPION CYCLONE / Ex IRON TITAN – Sept 2023
L (Néry) Battery deployed to SPTA in early Sept 23 in their new, armoured role after a frenetic post-summer leave period where the Battery completed the last phase of our armoured conversion and mandatory training.
The Battery deployed and then conducted a PACEX in what can only be described as the ‘leaguer sweatbowl’ – with unseason- ably high temperatures for September, the Battery conducted battle preparation and communication training to ensure that we were ready to roll into our TQCC live firing phase.
During TQCC live firing, the FST commanders conducted a mul- titude of live firing, ranging from basic mission sets and under- standing how to employ BGTI, through to more complex multi- battery rotation missions with impact grid corrections. Once the TQCC mission sets had been completed, we conducted a day of fireplanning – with the FST commanders ‘on point’ first, before the BC and BC’s assistant were put through their paces
during a challenging BC’s fireplan, with some excellent rates and responses from the Gun Line.
The TAC group then conducted ‘Ex SCORPION DRAGON’ – a three day simulation package ran via JFST at Solstice Park. The JFC were put through demanding serials, having to formulate and brief a credible plan at pace, before conducting both an execute of the defence and subsequent attack phase. Despite the JFC comprising our more junior members, the team performed admi- rably – quickly coordinating and integrating the joint fires assets available to help best support the manoeuvre arm.
Upon completion of JFST, we then conducted further BCS and integration training with the Royal Lancers BG before stepping off into the FTX / Ex IRON TITAN Phase. A thoroughly demand- ing 10 days, the FSTs supported B and D Sqns throughout, with BC’s TAC and the JFC remaining in BGHQ. We were able to prac- tice and hone our skills utilising a synthetic wrap and provided well informed Jt Fires advice to the manoeuvre arm throughout.
18