32 Regiment Royal Artillery ("The Wessex Gunners") is a
regiment
A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service and/or a specialisation.
In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscripted ...
in the
Royal Artillery
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 t ...
, part of the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
and is equipped with the
Lockheed Martin Desert Hawk III
The Lockheed Martin Desert Hawk III (DHIII) is a miniature UAV designed by the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in 2006 for use by modern militaries. It is a small surveillance drone, which is mainly used by the United Kingdom, but has also been used ...
and PUMA 2
miniature unmanned aerial vehicles. 32nd Regiment is the only Royal Artillery unit that operates MUAS and along with the
5th Regiment Royal Artillery
5th Regiment Royal Artillery is a regiment of the Royal Artillery in the British Army. It was formed in 1939 as 5th Regiment Royal Horse Artillery before being redesignated in 1958. It currently serves in the Surveillance and Target Acquisitio ...
provides an integrated tactical and strategic; intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance (
ISTAR
ISTAR stands for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance. In its macroscopic sense, ISTAR is a practice that links several battlefield functions together to assist a combat force in employing its sensors and managing t ...
) capability.
As part of
6th Division, under the immediate command of 1st Intelligence & Surveillance Brigade (1ISR), 32nd Regiment supports the Reactive Force elements of the British Army and provides dedicated MUAS capability to the
3rd (UK) Division.
History
The regiment has its origins in 7th Medium Brigade which was raised in 1927, evolved into 7th Medium Regiment and served throughout the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
In 1947, the 32nd Regimental Headquarters (RHQ) was retitled as the 45th Field Regiment and the 7th Medium Regiment RHQ was retitled as the 32nd.
In 1966, the regiment became a Heavy Regiment with
M107 175 mm self-propelled
guns.
In 1972, it became a light Regiment, equipped with
105mm Light Gun
The L118 light gun is a 105 mm towed howitzer. It was originally designed and produced in England for the British Army in the 1970s. It has since been widely exported. The L119 and the United States Army's M119 are variants that use a different ...
s; then, in 1978, a Guided Missile Regiment equipped with
Swingfire
Swingfire was a British wire-guided anti-tank missile developed in the 1960s and produced from 1966 until 1993. The name refers to its ability to make a rapid turn of up to ninety degrees after firing to bring it onto the line of the sighting m ...
anti-tank missile.
In 1985, it became a heavy regiment again with M107 guns based in
Dortmund
Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...
.
During the
Gulf War
The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...
, the regiment was equipped with
M110 self-propelled 203 mm howitzers and served as part of the Divisional Artillery Group supporting the
1st Armoured Division.
In December 2016 it was announced that the Regiment would be disbanded and its personnel redistributed to other parts of the British Army. In the British Army's ''Soldier Magazine'' October 2020 edition, it was confirmed the regiment would not disband but will continue to support the field army in the Mini-Unmanned Aerial Systems (MUAS) support role, using the Puma and Wasp AE (All Environment) mini unmanned air system.
As part of the
Future Soldier Programme, the regiment will gain an addition MUAS battery by 2023 in the form of 42 (Alem Hamza) Battery.
Batteries
The Regiment currently comprises the following batteries:
*46 (
Talavera) Headquarters Battery
*18 (Quebec 1759) Battery
*21 (
Gibraltar 1779–83) Air Assault Battery (Supporting
16 Air Assault Brigade
16 Air Assault Brigade Combat Team, from 1999 to 2021 16 Air Assault Brigade, is a formation of the British Army based in Colchester in the county of Essex. It is the Army's rapid response airborne formation and is the only brigade in the Britis ...
)
*
22 (Gibraltar 1779–83) Battery
References
External links
32 Regiment Royal Artillery32 Regiment RA in action in the 1991 Gulf War
Royal Artillery regiments
Military units and formations of the United Kingdom in the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
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