Why is 1st Armoured Regiment Still an RAAC Unit?

The Chief of Army has stripped 1 Armd Regt of its tanks, reduced it in size by two thirds, and given it a new non-combatant role as a test bed for new and emerging technologies.

The official role of the Royal Australian Armoured Corps (RAAC) is “to locate, identify, capture and destroy the enemy, by day or night, in combination with other arms, using fire and manoeuvre”.

According to artificial intelligence, the RAAC “is one of the Army’s combat arms, responsible for locating, identifying, capturing, and destroying the enemy, often in combination with other forces, using a combination of fire and manoeuvre. This role involves direct attack and reconnaissance.”

The armoured corps also used to be responsible for providing armoured mobility to infantry, however, that role has recently been passed to the infantry.

Now that a number [getting smaller every day] of Boxer combat reconnaissance vehicles are to be fitted with ‘Spike LR2’ anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM), the RAAC’s role could also be considered to include long range anti-tank defence.

However we define the role of the RAAC, one thing is certain: it doesn’t include that of being a non-combatant test-bed for new and emerging technologies.

But, ‘you say’, what about A Squadron, 3/9 SAMR? In 2022, the squadron was allocated as a “direct command sub-unit to 1st Armoured Regiment”. Could this mean that 1 Armd Regt is an RAAC unit because it commands an RAAC sub-unit? At the time that A Squadron was placed under command, 9 Brigade had just become the Army’s first integrated [i.e. combined ARA and ARES] combat brigade. Since the Defence Strategic Review, 9 Brigade has reverted to being a reserve formation (and South Australia’s 7RAR has relinked with 5RAR). 1 Armd Regt can now, therefore, fully concentrate on its non-combatant trials responsibilities.

So why is it still an RAAC unit; its personnel wearing black berets and silver badges?

Speaking of personnel, where have they all ended up? C Sqn was the squadron designated to undertake trials activities. Obviously, a lot of cross ‘job transfers’ went on at the time … those who wanted to stay in Adelaide swapping with those who wanted to continue crewing tanks, etc. But two squadrons were removed from the ORBAT …that’s a lot of men and women. Presumably officers and NCOs have found other postings. When first posted many would’ve thought they had the job they’d always hoped for. Fingers crossed that the Military Secretary’s office and RAAC career managers have helped resurrect careers (and dreams).

Of course, a number of career paths now require review. No longer is it possible to hope to one day command a tank regiment; nor be its RSM … pinnacles that might have been aspired to previously.

A thought … is 1 Armd Regt still an RAAC unit, so as to facilitate it becoming a tank regiment again? This can’t be right, it doesn’t make sense. As explained previously in the CONTACT magazine article ‘The Bond Formed by Tank Crews’, having been stripped of its tanks, the unit can never be the same. Not only that, 1 Armd Regt can be removed from, and added to, the ORBAT at the stroke of a pen. There is simply no justification for 1 Armd Regt to remain part of the RAAC.

In the words of some of those who have commented previously:
“The research and testing facility should be named just that or be a wing of the armoured training centre.” “To keep referring to it as 1st Armoured Regt is an embarrassment to those who served with it.”

Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Cameron, MC, RAAC (Ret’d)

 

FILE PHOTO: An Australian Army soldier from the 1st Armoured Regiment with an uncrewed ground vehicle equipped with a prototype communications system and experimental drone launcher during Project Convergence Capstone 5 at Fort Irwin, California. Photo by Corporal Nakia Chapman.

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