An Cosantóir

22 | THE LAST AND THE NEW BY SGT COLIN STONE (1ST BTY, 62 RES ARTY REGT) ed to push the envelope much higher and further than any other year as it was our Battery Commanders last camp. We had a long debrief after last year's successful shoot and we felt that we wanted to do something a little different this year to mark the special retirements. Quick actions are one of the best ways of testing a battery's efficiency and it tests every facet of the unit's organisation. Quick actions had never been tried before with the Ruag, in fact the drill for the quick action had not even been written yet! Quick actions are necessitated by infantry or support units calling for artillery fire support on a specific target Irish Defence Forces well since its introduction in 1949, training many generations of Irish Gunners. When it was time to retire this venerable weapon it would be safe to say that it was going to be a hard act to follow. The Ruag is like a precision Swiss time piece. It is a self-contained weapons system with spare parts, cleaning equipment and even the correct oils, all of which are contained within the carriage. All this equipment is listed to keep stock and to make sure that those parts will be present when it retires in a couple of decade's time, just like the venerable 25pdr. We had a great shoot in 2010 but we felt in 2011 we want- W ith the introduction of the Swiss Ruag 120mm mortar in 2009, Annual Camp became a more interesting prospect. The 25pdr had served the An Cosantóir July/August 2012 www.dfmagazine.ie within as short a time span as possible. The battery has to locate a fire position to occupy as fast as possible and set out the mortar tubes without the usual full survey as used with a deliberate deployment. Because the survey is not as detailed as a deliberate deployment it is up to the Gun Commander and Gun Position Officer to ensure the mortar is correctly laid out and ready to provide fire support as soon and as accurately as possible. The first ready mortar is laid out with a compass and when ready a round is fired. A line is laid out from this mortar to the director and the rest of the mortars are then laid out. As soon as they are laid out the Survey Officer reports that they are ready to join the Fire Mission. Training for a quick action is a rapid tempo affair with individual gun crews going to extremes to be the first to re- port ready. The first crew to report ready on the day receive the lion's share of the ammunition allotment. By their very nature quick actions are very quick paced. To allow fast and fluid movement it was decided to carry live ammunition on the carriage after our first deliberate deployment. The car- riage allows six rounds of ready use ammunition to be car- ried and it also changes the dynamic of the carriage. With the added weight the carriage became more of a challenge to operate. This was to be the first time that ammunition was allowed to be carried on a carriage. It is usually only

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