16th Regiment Royal Artillery

16th Regiment Royal Artillery
Active 1947 – present
Allegiance  United Kingdom
Branch  British Army
Role Air defence
Size 6 Batteries
Part of Joint Ground Based Air Defence
Garrison/HQ Baker Barracks, Thorney Island
Nickname(s) The Invicta Gunners
Equipment Rapier Field Standard C, Land Environment Air Picture Provision (LEAPP)
Photograph of a missile system in the foreground and the Canary Wharf skyline in the background.
Gunners from 16 Regiment, Royal Artillery, set up a Rapier FSC Ground Based Air Defence (GBAD) system at Blackheath, London, on 2 May 12, as part of Exercise Olympic Guardian

16th Regiment Royal Artillery is a regiment of the Royal Regiment of Artillery in the British Army. It currently serves in the air defence role, and is equipped with the Rapier FSC Short Range Air Defence (SHORAD) missile system and the Land Environment Air Picture Provision (LEAPP) system. One of its Rapier Batteries is always deployed to the Falkland Islands.

History

The regiment was established in 1947 when 2nd Coast Regiment Royal Artillery was retitled 16th Coast Regiment Royal Artillery.[1] As 16th Light Air Defence Regiment it was deployed to Borneo in 1965.[1] It undertook tours in Northern Ireland during the Troubles in 1973, 1974, 1976, 1979 and 1988 and 14 Battery took part in the Falklands War in 1982.[1]

In August 2007, the Regiment relocated to St George's Barracks in Rutland from Woolwich. Its departure from the Royal Artillery Barracks, where the Royal Regiment of Artillery had been based since 1716, was marked with a ceremony on 25 July 2007.[2] In July 2014 the Regiment moved to Baker Barracks, Thorney Island.[3]

The Regiment was part of the 2012 London Olympics Air Security Force, deploying Rapier FSC Ground Based Air Defence (GBAD) systems as part of Exercise Olympic Guardian.[4]

Role

The regiment is equipped with the Rapier Field Standard C SHORAD missile system providing local area air defence to land formations and airfields. It also provides a Land Environment Air Picture Provision capability to land formation HQs which provides a local Recognised Air Picture. Previously it also provided the now out of service Counter Rocket, Artillery, and Mortar C-RAM and Automated Sense & Warn (AS&W) Urgent Operational Requirement (UOR) capabilities on Operation TELIC (Iraq) and Operation HERRICK (Afghanistan) respectively.[5]

Batteries

The batteries are as follows:[6]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "16th Regiment Royal Artillery". British Army units 1945 on. Retrieved 10 May 2014.
  2. ↑ "End of an era for historic barracks". Newshopper.co. Archived from the original on 7 August 2011.
  3. ↑ "Thorney Island army base is boosted by 140 more troops". The News. 19 November 2016. Retrieved 16 September 2017.
  4. ↑ "Gunners test air defences for Olympic Games". Retrieved 20 April 2014.
  5. ↑ "Royal Artillery Careers". Ministry of Defence. Archived from the original on 2 May 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-18. Other operational commitments are conducted (in the tertiary role) using C-RAM - a new and highly sensitive self defence system which destroys rockets and projectiles in flight. Applicable to Gunner Rapier applicants only.
  6. ↑ "16th Regiment Royal Artillery: Battery historoes". Archived from the original on 20 August 2014. Retrieved 10 May 2014.
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