Королевская артиллерия: История и организация

Artillery arm of the British Army

The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises thirteen Regular Army regiments, the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery and five Army Reserve regiments.

Artillery was used by the English army as early as the Battle of Crécy in 1346, while Henry VIII established it as a semi permanent function in the 16th century. Until the early 18th century, the majority of British regiments were raised for specific campaigns and disbanded on completion. An exception were gunners based at the Tower of London, Portsmouth and other forts around Britain, who were controlled by the Ordnance Office and stored and maintained equipment and provided personnel for field artillery 'traynes' that were organised as needed. These personnel, responsible in peacetime for maintaining the forts with their garrison artillery (or coastal artillery), were the first regular artillerymen, organised in 1540 under the Master General and Board of Ordnance, but paid directly by the Exchequer. The regular artillerymen of the District Establishments were responsible for upkeep of the fort and maintenance of equipment, and would be brought up to strength in wartime with untrained personnel drafted in from the British Army or the Militia. The post of Captain of Fort was replaced (at least in England, if not in its colonies) with that of Governor following the Restoration. When Marlborough was restored as Master General of the Ordnance in 1714, he initiated a series of reforms, which included splitting the existing Ordnance Service into artillery and sappers or engineers. The artillery were formed into two marching companies, each of 100 men, in 1716. These marching companies were renamed the "Royal Artillery" in 1720. These were increased to four companies and on 1 April 1722 grouped with independent artillery units at Gibraltar and Menorca to form the Royal Regiment of Artillery; the first commander was Colonel Albert Borgard, a Dane who served in the British army since 1698. Although the Royal Artillery increasingly involved itself with the coastal artillery in Britain, also, the District Establishments remained independent until February 1771, when the Royal Artillery formed eight Invalid Companies (made up of personnel no longer fit for expeditionary service) into which they were absorbed (although the District Establishments would still rely on drafts of sailors, British Army soldiers, Militia infantrymen, or Volunteers to bring the batteries up to wartime strength until the formation of Militia Artillery and Volunteer Artillery in the 1850s). During the 18th century, the British regular military forces, including the Board of Ordnance's military corps (the Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers and later the Royal Sappers and Miners) and the British Army (composed mostly of infantry and cavalry) became increasingly professional (various reserve, or local, forces also existed, including: the Militia, or old Constitutional Force, normally made up of infantry units; the mounted Yeomanry; and Volunteer units of various types, normally raised only during wartime), particularly in the fields of artillery and engineering; Britain lagged behind others in this area, with Vauban establishing the French Corps royal des ingénieurs militaires as far back as 1690. A cadet company was formed at the Royal Military Academy or RMA Woolwich in 1741; this trained artillery and engineering officers for the regiment, the East India Company and the Royal Irish Artillery. Originally based in the Royal Arsenal, beginning in 1770 the regiment was rehoused in the Royal Artillery Barracks on Woolwich Common. A major innovation in 1793 was the establishment of the Royal Horse Artillery, designed to provide mobile fire support for cavalry units. Fixed Coastal Artillery batteries were generally manned in peacetime by a handful of Royal Artillery personnel primarily responsible for maintenance, who were reinforced in wartime by drafts of infantrymen from the British Army or the Militia, or by temporarily raised Volunteer Artillery corps. This was to remain the case through the Naploeonic Wars.

The regiment was involved in all major campaigns of the Napoleonic Wars; in 1804, naval artillery was transferred to the Royal Marine Artillery, while the Royal Irish Artillery lost its separate status in 1810 after the 1800 Union. This period also saw development of the Congreve rocket; based on an existing Indian design, these were the first solid fuel projectiles used by the British army and two rocket troops were established in 1814. Their use in the War of 1812 is referenced in the line "rocket's red glare" which appears in the Star Spangled Banner. The Militia, which had been a paper tiger since the end of the Napoleonic Wars, was re organised under the Militia Act 1852 in response to the threat of invasion by France, changing it from a conscripted force to one made up of volunteers who engaged for terms of service. The force continued to be a reserve tasked with home defence, embodied for annual training, and for the duration of wars or emergencies. The Militia had been principally an infantry force to this date,

The Royal Artillery (and also of the Royal Engineers, Royal Sappers and Miners, the Commissariat Department, and various barracks, ordnance stores, and transport departments) was transferred to the British Army when the Board of Ordnance was abolished in 1855 (the administrative branches of the Board were absorbed by the War Office) and the War Office School of Gunnery established in Shoeburyness in 1859. Although the Militia and the Volunteer Force remained separate forces, during the latter half of the Nineteenth Century they were re organised through a succession of reforms, and increasingly integrated with the British Army. In 1882, the Militia Artillery units lost their individual identities, becoming numbered brigades organised within Royal Artillery territorial divisions (two brigades of horse artillery, four brigades of field artillery and eleven territorial divisions of garrison artillery). In 1889 the number of divisions was reduced to three, and the Militia Artillery brigades were renamed again, mostly regaining some variation of their original territorial names. Prior to 1882, each Militia Artillery unit in the United Kingdom wore a unique badge. Between 1882 and 1889, Militia Artillery brigades wore a divisional badge based on that of the Royal Artillery, except that the lower scroll and upper scroll, which on the Royal Artillery badge were inscribed "Quo Fas Et Gloria Ducunt" and "Ubique" (which indicated the regular Royal Artillery, like the Royal Engineers, served everywhere), were respectively inscribed with the name of the territorial division name (by example, North Irish Division) and left blank or covered in a spray of laurel (as the Militia and Volunteer Force were both home defence forces, the members of which could not be sent abroad on expedition without their consents).

On 1 July 1899, the Royal Artillery was divided into three groups: the Royal Horse Artillery of 21 batteries and the Royal Field Artillery of 95 batteries composed one group, while the coastal defence, mountain, siege and heavy batteries were split off into another group named the Royal Garrison Artillery of 91 companies. The remainder of the Special Reserve was re designated as the Militia again after the First World War and permanently suspended. The Territorial Force was renamed the Territorial Army. The division of the Royal Regiment of Artillery lasted until 1924, when the RFA, RHA, and RGA amalgamated once more to become one regiment. In 1947 the Riding Troop RHA was renamed the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery and, in 1951, the title of the regiment's colonel in chief became Captain General. The Royal Horse Artillery, which has separate traditions, uniforms and insignia, still retains a distinct identity within the regiment. From its beginnings, the Royal Artillery has been based at Woolwich, in south east London. In 2003 it was decided to move the headquarters to Larkhill in the Salisbury Plain Training Area in Wiltshire (the RA's training ground, where the Royal School of Artillery has been based since 1915). In 2012, however, the King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery was relocated to Woolwich from their former headquarters in St John's Wood.

100th (Yeomanry) Regiment Royal Artillery – A specialist pool of gunnery instructors, naval gunfire liaison officers, forward air controllers and personnel supporting formation headquarters in the Army, all divisions and most brigades. Based at Royal Artillery Barracks, Woolwich Garrison with batteries in Larkhill Garrison and Bath. 101 (Northumbrian) Regiment Royal Artillery – Equipped with Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) and paired with 26 Regiment RA. Has batteries in Gateshead, Blyth, Newcastle, Hexham, South Shields, Catterick, and Leeds. 103 (Lancashire Artillery Volunteers) Regiment Royal Artillery – Equipped with L118 light gun. Has batteries in St Helens, Bolton, Liverpool, Douglas, Manchester, Bulwell, and Wolverhampton. 104 Regiment Royal Artillery – Equipped with the L118 light gun. Has batteries in Newport, Abertillery, Bristol, Worcester, and Plymouth. 105 Regiment Royal Artillery – (The Scottish & Ulster Gunners) – Equipped with the L118 light gun. Has batteries in Edinburgh, Newtownards, Coleraine, Glasgow, Arbroath, Kirkcaldy, Shetland, and Livingston. 106 (Yeomanry) Regiment Royal Artillery – The Army's only Reserve Air Defence unit. Equipped with the Starstreak missile and currently a part of 7th Air Defence Group, with batteries in Grove Park, Portsmouth, and Southampton.

MAMBA (mobile artillery monitoring battlefield array) uses radar to track enemy mortar and artillery shells out to a range of 40 km. It can be used to predict the point of impact, thereby giving a number of seconds warning, but is usually deployed to trace the point of origin of mortar/artillery rounds and then provide correction for counter battery fire. It is operated by 5th Regiment RA. ASP (advanced sound ranging program) is an acoustic triangulation system that used a series of sensor posts (microphones) to triangulate the point of origin and point of impact of enemy mortars and artillery. It is operated by 5th Regiment RA. Thales Watchkeeper WK450 (UAV) is operated by 47 Regiment Royal Artillery. Desert Hawk III UAV – the DH3 is a hand launched UAV. It is operated by 32 Regiment Royal Artillery.

13 pounder – The King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery retains six operational First World War era QF 13 pounders for use as state saluting guns.

Corporal – In service with the 27th and 47th Guided Weapons Regiment RA from 1954 to 1966. See Project E
Honest John – In service with the 24th, 39th, 47th and 50 Missile Regiment Royal Artillery from 1960 to 1977. Lance – In service with the 50 Missile Regiment Royal Artillery from 1976 to 1993.

The Regimental museum, "Firepower" located in the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich closed in 2017.