The 20th Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery is an

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal land warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army (CA), who ...

regiment which was raised in 2006 as the 20th Surveillance and Target Acquisition Regiment. Responsible for providing artillery spotting and tactical reconnaissance, the regiment has deployed personnel to East Timor, the Solomon Islands, Iraq and Afghanistan, operating a variety of equipment.

History

Consisting of three batteries – the 131st STA, 132nd UAV and CSS Bty – the regiment draws on the lineage of the 20th Locating Regiment, which was disbanded in 1971; the 131st Divisional Locating Battery served with the

1st Australian Task Force The 1st Australian Task Force (1 ATF) was a brigade-sized formation which commanded Australian and New Zealand Army units deployed to South Vietnam between 1966 and 1972. 1 ATF was based in a rubber plantation at Nui Dat, north of Bà Rịa ...

during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

, having originally been formed in 1954 as a Citizens Military Force (CMF) unit before becoming a regular unit in 1965. The 131st was deployed to Vietnam between 1966 and 1971. The 132nd Locating Battery was also formed as part of the CMF around the same time. The 131st STA Battery was transferred to the regiment in 2006, and while the remainder of the regiment began forming in 2007. The regiment is responsible for providing the Australian Army with artillery spotting and tactical reconnaissance. The regiment is based at Gallipoli Barracks in Enoggera, Queensland. All elements of the regiment were formed over the course of several years after 2007. The 132nd UAV Battery was to operate the Army's Israel Aircraft Industries I-View UAVs from 2010, but the acquisition of these UAVs was canceled in 2009. The regiment then operated Boeing ScanEagle UAVs, and deployed UAV detachments to Iraq and Afghanistan. The regiment has also deployed the AN/TPQ-36 Weapon Locating Radar to Iraq. On 1 March 2010, 20STA became part of the re-raised 6th Brigade. After the cancellation of the I-View, in August 2010 the AAI Shadow 200 was approved for purchase, with the first systems expected to be operating in Australian hands by the end of 2011. After training in the US, the regiment deployed a battery to Afghanistan in 2012, eventually rotating three batteries through this deployment. The Shadow is due for replacement around 2022. As well as deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq, the regiment has also deployed personnel to East Timor and the Solomon Islands. In October 2019, the regiment was renamed the 20th Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery.

Current organisation

The regiment consists of: *Regimental Headquarters *131st Surveillance Target Acquisition Battery *132nd Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Battery *Combat Service and Support Battery

Notes

External links

* Defence Material Office
Project JP 129 – Airborne Surveillance For Land Operations
{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 20 20 Australian army units with royal patronage Military units and formations established in 2006 Military units in Queensland