269 (West Riding) Battery Royal Artillery is part of

101st (Northumbrian) Regiment Royal Artillery 101 (Northumbrian) Medium Regiment Royal Artillery is part of the Army Reserve and has sub units throughout the north east as well as one sub unit in Leeds, West Yorkshire. It is equipped with M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS). History ...

, an artillery regiment 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 ...

History

The battery was formed as 269 (West Riding) Observation Post Battery Royal Artillery (Volunteers) in April 1975 at

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

from a cadre of the West Riding Regiment RA (Territorials). Its role was to provide observation teams to support 1st Armoured Division and 2nd Armoured Division in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. In 1989 the battery re-roled to the 105 mm light gun and in 1993 it joined 19th Regiment Royal Artillery, a regular regiment in

24 Airmobile Brigade 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smalle ...

. In July 1999 it re-roled as an air defence battery equipped with the

Rapier A rapier () or is a type of sword with a slender and sharply-pointed two-edged blade that was popular in Western Europe, both for civilian use (dueling and self-defense) and as a military side arm, throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. Impo ...

surface-to-air missile system within

106th (Yeomanry) Regiment Royal Artillery 106 (Yeomanry) Regiment Royal Artillery is part of the Army Reserve and has sub-units throughout the South of England. The Regiment's role is Close Air Defence and it was part of the Joint Ground Based Air Defence (Jt GBAD) formation, later 7 Ai ...

. In 2006 it transferred to

where it was given a

Surveillance and Target Acquisition Surveillance and target acquisition is a military role assigned to units and/or their equipment. It involves watching an area to see what changes (surveillance) and then the acquisition of targets based on that information. Artillery STA The ro ...

role. Under

Army 2020 Army 2020, was the name given to the restructuring of the British Army, in light of the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review. Background The British Government gave an indication of its proposals for the future structure of the Army in ea ...

, it is re-roling to the

M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System The M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System (M270 MLRS) is an American-developed armored, self-propelled, multiple rocket launcher. The U.S. Army variant of the MLRS vehicle is based on the chassis of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle. The first M270s wer ...

. The unit is based in

Carlton Barracks Carlton Barracks is a military installation in Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. History The barracks were opened as a base for the 4th Battalion of the West Yorkshire Militia in 1865. In 1887 the barracks were bought, with corps funds, to accomm ...

, Leeds.

References

Publications

* Litchfield, Norman E H, 1992. ''The Territorial Artillery 1908-1988'', The Sherwood Press, Nottingham. {{ISBN, 0-9508205-2-0 Royal Artillery batteries Military units and formations in the West Riding of Yorkshire