The excitement of dropping bombs was Gunner Mitchell Harmer’s pleasant escape from his 9 to 5 job in the banking industry.
He was one of roughly 60 reservists that belonged to the 9th Regiment of the Royal Australian Artillery (9 Regt RAA), who participated in Exercise Waratah Run from March 24 to 26 at Singleton. They carried out fire missions and trained soldiers to be artillery advance observers.
Gunner Harmer remarked, “When you start dropping shots, your body shakes, and you also feel ground shift.
It’s an extraordinary feeling, and you can’t get used to it in everyday life.
Because tiny errors might result in huge ones, he explained.
When Lieutenant Madison Wright was serving as a forward observer and firing mortar rounds at targets from a hill miles away from Gunner Harmer, she saw just how crucial the little things could be.
She was one of the nine soldiers and commanders from the Regt RAA who had completed formative simulator assessments to become advance observers.
According to Lieutenant Wright, the flat-screen trainer was quite helpful as we first practised in the simulator.
“My first round stood on target, so we started firing for effect immediately.”
By piloting unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and providing comments on the battlefield, gunners supported ISR.
This illustrated the future surveillance and target-acquisition responsibilities of the regiment.
New capabilities, including unmanned aerial systems and lightweight radars, are being implemented, according to Regiment Commanding Officer Lieutenant Colonel Philip Wong.
As part of the Army’s Artillery Modernization Plan, Lieutenant Colonel Wong stated, “we are rebalancing our capability from our historical role of support and more towards surveillance as well as target acquisition.”
The regiment has various small UAS as well as the Lightweight Multi-Mode Radar, which tracks the aircraft, UAS, and also the trajectory of artillery fire as well as to generate target location references based on this data. The regiment also offers target acquisition capabilities through joint fires and ISR support teams.
