British Army personnel from the 19th Regiment Royal Artillery, known as the Scottish Gunners, have showcased their modernised artillery capabilities during Exercise Dynamic Front in Finland, according to a press release.
Set against the snowy backdrop of Lapland’s Rovajarvi training area, the exercise marked the first tactical deployment of the Army’s new Archer 155mm artillery system.
The week-long event brought together over 5,000 troops from 28 NATO countries, collaborating on joint live-fire exercises.
Major David Mortimer, Second in Command of 19th Regiment Royal Artillery, emphasised the significance of this deployment. “This is a fantastic opportunity to showcase our modernised artillery capability in front of all our NATO partners,” he said. The Archer, along with the newly deployed Taipan weapon-locating radar system, demonstrated advanced find-and-strike capabilities.
The Taipan and Archer systems aim to enhance the Army’s lethality by reducing the time between target acquisition and engagement. Major Mortimer explained, “This reduces the kill chain, therefore increasing our lethality within our find-and-strike system.”
The exercise also tested personnel against extreme Arctic conditions, with temperatures dropping to minus 15 degrees Celsius. The Scottish Gunners, supported by Arctic warfare instructors and equipped with specialised cold-weather gear, underwent rigorous preparation, including cold-weather operator courses and snow and ice driver training.
“It was quite a culture shock to a lot of our personnel to be up here in such testing conditions,” said Major Mortimer.
“The future is about firing smart munitions, which increases our lethality,” added Major Mortimer.
The Archer’s rapid introduction followed the transfer of 32 AS90 self-propelled guns to Ukraine.
“Our first train-the-trainer instructors were deployed to Sweden in late 2023,” said Mortimer. “It’s incredible that we’re now ready to put this equipment into use so quickly.”
The exercise, hosted by Finland for the first time since joining NATO in 2023, reflects the alliance’s commitment to enhancing collective defence and readiness. “We are stronger together and work to our common values and goals,” concluded Lieutenant-Colonel Faivre.
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This must be fake news. I read in the comments section of UKDJ that the UK has no army and can’t fight in Eastern Europe. I have been assured repeatedly that the Russia army is amazing and would role over our measly forces (that don’t even have ammunition) in a few minutes. 😀
no far off true,
Jim.
The British Army has 2 Batteries of 155mm equipment.
Two.
This, even if temporary, replaces SIX Regiments worth of AS90 SPG.
The result of a period between 97 and 2010 when EVERY program started by the RA was cancelled.
The result of the chopping of 4 of those 6 Regiments from about 2007,2008 onwards in defence cuts, and “replacement” with Light Gun, or, more recently, with MLRS.
The result of the need for politicians to show urgency in helping Ukraine, so a good dose of grandstanding, “look what we are doing”, an urgency they lacked for years in “helping” their own army’s artillery arm.
Even with the most positive of spin, this situation is unacceptable for an army of the stature of the British Army.
I suppose on a positive, at least the MLRS fleet is being expanded/modernised. However apart from L118 there does not seem to be a lot else there or any plan for any quick procurements . Unless something is going on what the M777 that we don’t know about
Yes yes, Deep Fires expansion is a thing…if it survives Labour, they have already chopped off a chunk off the ISTAR elements that identify targets for it so I’ll withhold getting too excited there. Will GMLRS PS be fully funded if we have now joined Germany with this Cruise Missile thing?
Our MLRS is being upgraded to M270A2 which allows the use of PrSM. It was suggested we may buy them as well. LM OUTRIDER UAV is also being talked about
All good stuff. Worth saying that our erstwhile opponent, the Russian Army, has always considered guns to be ‘the God of War’ and has always had a huge number of them. They are sadly using artillery to horrendous effect in Ukraine against military and civilian targets.
Except we are massively increasing the number of MLRS. Artillery of all types is proving increasingly vulnerable, self propelled guns are almost suicidal to operate and even shoot and scoot tactics used by wheeled or tracked artillery is all but suicidal and that’s where donkeys like the Russians are fighting much less forces with advanced sensors like the Chinese would have.
In Ukraine counter battery radars are no so good then incoming rounds are fired before the first fired rounds even reach a target. That’s what the modern battlefield looks like. Artillery and missile rounds are no so advanced these even autonomously track their own targets after being fired.
Long range Precison fire will now replace most artillery, all that will remain will be weapons like RCH 155 that can fire on the move and even that tactic will be deadly when you have long range suicide drones and ground launched cruise missiles able to acquire their own target and near real t time SAR satellite coverage of battlefields.
I agree the new MLRS should have been in place first and it’s one of the worst tactics the last government introduced and the present one is unfortunately following however when it comes to missiles the amount of the stock pile is far more important than the number of launchers and it’s also important to factor in weapons like Brimestone.
All this is to say the British army is far from useless as many commentators on here keep portraying.
Everything on the battlefield,from dismounted infantry to artillery pieces (including MLRS) to tanks, is vulnerable to one or more counter-systems and always has been. The trick is not to accept defeat on this issue but to devise both offensive and defensive counters to counter-systems, be they technology solutions or revised TTP… and to do so quickly.
Drones are not guaranteed to remain a dominant threat. Tanks and SPGs are not destined to become irrelevant.
Some have been critical of RCH-155’s demonstration of ‘fire on the move’ – the vehicle was shown doing just 10-20kph on a dry, straight and level track in daylight and fired a handful of rounds over a fixed forward arc. Still, the capability might be better than this corporate video showed.
I agree that the British Army is far from useless. Some of its strengths include: leadership (especially at the junior levels); good doctrine and TTP; initiative at all levels; combat/field experience; fitness and fighting spirit; quality of training (individual and collective).
Also, much of its older equipment is still capable against Russian equipment – many Ukrainian officers and soldiers consider CR2 to have performed better than M1 Abrams and Leo2 in Ukraine/Kursk.
Why did we not just buy more Archer FH77? not as in all the Arty has Archer but may be a full Regts worth. rather than wait until the end of time for RCH 155mm? 14 is feeble. Mind you does not matter what we buy, we might struggle to man/women/them/they them and have enough ammo for more than a week.
Women them lol love it , man them is the correct term Mann being the proto germanic word for “people” but I did find that funny so thankyou I’m sat very sick and needed to laugh lol
119 RCH 155mm to be delivered to British Army by 2030 – hardly ‘end of time’.
As for ammo, BAE plans to be churning out 1.5million artillery shells per annum from its Washington plant alone by end of 2026.
That 119 is still being quoted and I doubt it’s accuracy.
That figure came from the original requirement when up to 4 Regiments worth would be so equipped.
Only 2 of those Regiments remain in role.
I have not seen it reaffirmed in any official statement or even a re announcement, so beloved of spin politicians.
So I would be very pleasantly surprised and it would indicatea considerable reorg of the RA from its current form.
I think 2030 is when RCH-155 is due to start being fielded, ie IOC. Full fielding may take several years. We may be at war before that happens.
How many have we committed to buy? None. I’ll let you figure out where that one is going.
No contracts have been signed to procure Boxer RCH-155, but that is because Sunak (the artillery expert!) considered that it first needs further development by an Anglo-German team.
I doubt we will fail to buy this SPG as it is a political & international project, as well as a military one.
As I understand it Qty 14 secondhand guns was all the Swedish Army had at the time to spare us. These guns are mounted on the older vehicle, a 6×6 Volvo. Sweden has modernised their capability and now use the 8×8 Rheinmetall HX2 vehicle.
Not sure why you think the RA would struggle to man more guns.
I think it was what was readily avaliable. It’s a stop gap.
Archer was suppose to be a stop gap until UK bought Team Thunder the K9. K9 Thunder self-propelled howitzer. Apparently no one from UK even turned up to visit Hanwha Defense or even assess the K9 We where suppose to do the following : The Team Thunder partnership is established with one eye on the export market with
the potential for the UK to become a regional hub within the global supply chain of the
2,400 K9 family vehicles, including K10 ammunition resupply vehicles.” Which would have been the way to go. However Sunak went over to Germany and thought of a cheap option RCH RCH 155 (Remote Controlled Howitzer 155 mm) is a wheeled self-propelled and then decided to get 116 in Number which really up set the Swedes
Archer was a stop-gap until a permanent solution was selected, the K9 Thunder was only one of the available purchase options.
The selection of RCH 155mm makes sense in terms of the British Army already buying over 600 Boxers.
As for a regional hub for K9, Poland was always by far the stronger candidate, ordering over 350 complete K9s, and a further 96 chassis being built in Poland under licence.
RCH 155 was selected primarily because it can fire on the move. I don’t think any of the other platforms have this capability
Firing a couple of rounds just over the front right wheel station at about 10mph is hardly firing on the move and probably not very accurate in the indirect fire role
It was by no means certain that we would buy K9 Thunder for the MFP – it was one of several options.
I understand that the army was to competitively evaluate Boxer RCH-155, K9 Thunder, Archer and possibly Nexter’s Caesar. But Sunak jumped in and selected RCH-155 without any evaluation, and to turn it into a collaborative (UK-Germany) development rather than to buy off the shelf.
It was by no means certain that we would buy K9 Thunder for the MFP – it was one of several options.
I understand that the army was to competitively evaluate Boxer RCH-155, K9 Thunder, Archer and possibly Nexter’s Caesar. But Sunak jumped in and selected RCH-155 without any evaluation, and to turn it into a collaborative (UK-Germany) development rather than to buy off the shelf.
The mod and government missed a big opportunity with k9 and the other packages on offer that would have helped the British defence industry
Even for this website Martin, you’re a tiresome cynic.
Welcome to Russia, you fools.
Don’t you want to defeat Putin?
-15 degrees culture shock? In Russia in winter -15 is the average temperature, but often for several weeks it can be -20-30 degrees in the European part.
“The exercise also tested personnel against extreme Arctic conditions, with temperatures dropping to minus 15 degrees Celsius.”
Extreme Arctic conditions??? Wait! Are you sure you want to go to war with us? I live in Moscow and I’m walking my dogs at -30. And that’s not anywhere near the North Pole, nor it is anywhere in Siberia. Moscow is located in Europe. For Russians -15 is quite comfortable and mild type of weather. Really enjoyable. Articles like this make me laugh. Just like any Russian :)))
You’re wanking in grandma’s basement, Alex.
Only been near Moscow in your adolescent wet dreams.