RAA Liaison Letter 2024 - 2025 Edition

RAA Liaison Letter – 2024 / 2025 Edition 50 complete. 53 hours after starting, the smiling assassin, BDR Daniel Berg and Alpha Gun were crowned the Champion Detachment. The setting was deemed a suitable backdrop to promote seven of our JNCO’s. Well-deserved recognition following a busy year! Throughout 2024 members of 53 Bty could be found across the United Kingdom (Op KUDU & Exercise SUMAN Warrior), Papua New Guinea (Exercise Wontok Warrior), the Philippines (Joint Australian Training Team) and Japan (Ex Yama Sakura) as we contributed to the Army’s global commitments. We fired thousands of rounds to qualify members of the RAA and spent 71 nights in the field. We threw our support behind Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group as they continued trials of new and interesting kit for communications and target designation. In the final week of the year, we promoted several members of the Bty and acknowledged our highest performers. Particularly, we congratulate Steven Field who was promoted to Warrant Officer Class Two and Ishaq Ali who promoted to Captain. Fitting recognition to two outstanding individuals! 2024 closed out in good order and the Southern Gunners will emerge again in 2025 amid the backdrop of the introduction of AS-9 and HIMARS, while providing the backbone that enables the School of Artillery to qualify the soldiers and officers in the generation of RAA firepower. Radio and Digital Support Wing 2024 was a challenging, yet successful year for Radio and Digital Support Wing that saw the passing through of numerous Gunners into the Royal Australian Artillery. To support through-put, the primary focus for RDSW consisted of transitioning from the traditional ADF Careers - based ECN allocation, to the Recruit To Segment-Artillery (RTS-A) trade allocation model using internal assessment and soldier preferences prior to ECN allocation with the end-state being enhanced role satisfaction and retention. This required a shift in the roles and responsibilities of RDSW staff especially the Junior Non-Commissioned Officers requiring them to maintain detailed observations, assessment and trade recommendation for the newly inducted Gunners within the RAA. As part of the RTS-A trade allocation model, the Wing has developed an evolving Combat Behaviours Package with the intent to enhance survivability and lethality of the next generation of Gunners that is essential to success on the modern battlefield. Of the many Gunners that graduated out of RDSW into their streams there was a significant increase of soldiers allocated to Air and Missile Defence and Artillery Command Systems Operators, substantially more than previous years in order to support force modernisation efforts and bolster our critical trades. The RTS- A package has proven successful since its implementation in early 2024, RDSW is forecasted to continue to allocate Gunners to suitable trades to support and operate the new capabilities within the RAA. RDSW successfully delivered dozens of courses, covering in excess of 6000 periods of instruction covering Combat Behaviours, communications and weapons training and also contributed to Army’s greater requirements through the deployment of a member ISO OP KUDU 2024. Of special note for the training year, Bombardier Drew Pratt was presented with the School of Artillery - Instructor of the Year 2024, for his dedication to his role and development of RAA educational and instructional packages. Radio Digital Support Wing will maintain the rage and push into 2025 to endow the next generation of RAA Gunners with the fundamental warfighting skills to support Army to achieve its mission in 2025 and beyond.