47 Regiment Royal Artillery 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 ...

of 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 ...

in 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 ...

. It is equipped with the

Thales Watchkeeper WK450 The Thales Watchkeeper WK450 is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for all weather, intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISTAR) use by the British Army. It is provided under an £800 million contract with UAS Tactica ...

. It is located at Horne Barracks,

Larkhill Larkhill is a garrison town in the civil parish of Durrington, Wiltshire, England. It lies about west of the centre of Durrington village and north of the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge. It is about north of Salisbury. The settlement ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

. It falls under command of

1st Aviation Brigade The 1st Aviation Brigade commands three distinctly different battalions—the 1st Battalion, 13th Aviation Regiment; the 1st Battalion, 145th Aviation Regiment; and the 2nd Battalion, 13th Aviation Regiment, the former Unmanned Aircraft System ...

History

The regiment was formed in 1947 when 4th Coast Training Regiment Royal Artillery was renamed 47 Coast Training Regiment Royal Artillery. It was reformed as 47 Guided Weapons Regiment Royal Artillery and equipped with the

Corporal Corporal is a military rank in use in some form by many militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. The word is derived from the medieval Italian phrase ("head of a body"). The rank is usually the lowest ranking non ...

missile in 1957. In 1965 it was renamed 47 Light Regiment Royal Artillery and equipped with the 105mm Pack Howitzer and then deployed to

Aden Aden ( ar, عدن ' Yemeni: ) is a city, and since 2015, the temporary capital of Yemen, near the eastern approach to the Red Sea (the Gulf of Aden), some east of the strait Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000 people. ...

in 1967. It saw service in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

during

the Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an "i ...

in 1973 and 1975. In 1976 it became 47 Field Regiment Royal Artillery, initially equipped with the

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 ...

, before moving on to the Abbott self-propelled gun in 1981. 21 Battery and elements of 43 Battery deployed to the South Atlantic during the

Falklands War The Falklands War ( es, link=no, Guerra de las Malvinas) was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial de ...

in 1982. 3 Battery, 31 Battery and elements of 21 Battery took part in 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: ...

in 1991. 21 Battery saw action in

Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and He ...

in 1995 and elements of 31 Battery were deployed to Macedonia and to

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...

in 1999. Between 2001 and 2014 elements of the Regiment were deployed on

Operation Herrick Operation Herrick was the codename under which all British operations in the War in Afghanistan were conducted from 2002 to the end of combat operations in 2014. It consisted of the British contribution to the NATO-led International Security Assis ...

in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

Dress Distinction

In September 2019 the regiment changed from their Royal Artillery headdress to that of the aviation light blue beret.

Current Role

The Regiment is the sole operator of the

UAS.

Current Batteries

The Regiment currently comprises four equipment Batteries and one HQ Battery. The fourth equipment Battery (57 Battery) was added in 2019: * 10 (Assaye) Battery * 43 Battery (Lloyd's Company) * 57 (Bhurtpore) Battery * 74 Battery (The Battle Axe Company) * 31 (Headquarters) Battery

Previous Batteries

*4 (Sphinx 1742–1993) Battery *3 Battery *21 (Gibraltar) Battery *25/170 (Imjin) Battery

References

{{British Army Artillery Regiments Royal Artillery regiments