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Subject: Australian Gunners in A'Stan
ArtyEngineer    11/25/2008 4:55:24 PM
Found clip below on youtube featuring your guys. http://www.youtube.com/v/j0DLyv-WJGs&hl=en&fs=1">http://www.youtube.com/v/j0DLyv-WJGs&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344">
 
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THEPUSSMK2       11/26/2008 2:38:28 AM
Hopefully soon we will have enough experienced gunners to be able to deploy a battery of our own to get even more experienced gunners. Good for morale, good for experience. The same goes for the Armor and anti air regiments.
 
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Raven22       11/26/2008 4:48:40 AM

There are more than enough experienced gunners to send a battery of our own now. The only problem is political will, not capability. Our gunners are certainly capable enough - the gun troop from 8/12 that just got back from Op Herrick fired 123 missions, ~ 20 000 shells and was the only troop in the battlegroup not to fire a mistake - all the British gun troops did.

Interesting to note that 8/12 will fire their first Excaliber from an M-198 in mid December, so there is no reason they could not be deployed if required. They're pretty keen to get into the fight are the gunners - they're sick of being laughed at.

 
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Aussiegunneragain    Raven   11/26/2008 6:16:47 AM
Agreed that there are enough experienced gunners to send into a fight. The RAA trains under the closest thing to operational conditions of any Corp in the Army. 95% of the training is conducted with live rounds and the only real modifications for training are that there are safety officers on the gun position who do a general check that the gun is pointing in the right direction and increased danger close distances. They sometimes will train under modified safety which involves removing some of those arrangements. 
PS, the artillery doesn't have "troops", it has gun detachments, sections, batteries and regiments.  
 
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Aussiegunneragain    Raven   11/26/2008 6:21:35 AM
Amend my last to say that the Australian artillery doesn't have troops. Apparently the RHA does.
 
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THEPUSSMK2       11/26/2008 6:29:22 AM

Agreed that there are enough experienced gunners to send into a fight. The RAA trains under the closest thing to operational conditions of any Corp in the Army. 95% of the training is conducted with live rounds and the only real modifications for training are that there are safety officers on the gun position who do a general check that the gun is pointing in the right direction and increased danger close distances. They sometimes will train under modified safety which involves removing some of those arrangements. 


PS, the artillery doesn't have "troops", it has gun detachments, sections, batteries and regiments.  

Good to hear...send a batterie now!

 
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ArtyEngineer       11/26/2008 11:07:37 AM

There are more than enough experienced gunners to send a battery of our own now. The only problem is political will, not capability. Our gunners are certainly capable enough - the gun troop from 8/12 that just got back from Op Herrick fired 123 missions, ~ 20 000 shells and was the only troop in the battlegroup not to fire a mistake - all the British gun troops did.


Interesting to note that 8/12 will fire their first Excaliber from an M-198 in mid December, so there is no reason they could not be deployed if required. They're pretty keen to get into the fight are the gunners - they're sick of being laughed at.



Do you know if they are coming over here to do that initial shot at one of teh nice instrumented ranges at Yuma Proving Ground or maybe Whitesands?
 
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Raven22       11/26/2008 3:37:51 PM
Nah, they're firing it in Australia. I can't remember exacty where, but it was definently south of Darwin.
 
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Aussiegunneragain       11/27/2008 6:57:04 AM

I wouldn't have a problem with the guns being deployed. However I wouldn question is whether extra guns are needed in A'stan. I get the impression that NATO has heaps of fire support assets and that its really infantry which is needed at this stage.

 
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gf0012-aust       11/27/2008 4:22:48 PM

Nah, they're firing it in Australia. I can't remember exacty where, but it was definently south of Darwin.

instrumented?  south of alice and north of adelaide (??)
 
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Arty Farty       11/27/2008 8:02:04 PM

I wouldn't have a problem with the guns being deployed. However I wouldn question is whether extra guns are needed in A'stan. I get the impression that NATO has heaps of fire support assets and that its really infantry which is needed at this stage.



There's an effort to ween the coalition forces off air strikes (fast jets+bombs) to reduce civilian casualties. Maybe artillery is the way to go, especially with Excalibur (little JDAM).
 
PS: Been re-reading Thomas Ricks' 'Fiasco'. Astan commanders (late '01/early '02) were disappoint about not being allowed to bring artillery. They had to rely on aircraft.
 
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