State of the Regiment, 2006

LtCol Martin Neale, CO 16 Fd Regt RNZA

Fellow gunners,
I thought it timely to bring you all up to date on developments in the RNZA in the 6 months since our Corps conference in Dec 05.

Personnel

This table shows the current manning of the Regiment versus its establishment.

As you can see the only serious remaining deficit is at the Capt level. Of the 7 on posted strength two are currently deployed. There are no more promotions to Capt until Jan 2008, which is a concern. There have been a total of 49 promotions within the Regt since Jul 05, which is very healthy, we are promoting our way out of the Bdr and Sgt deficit we had.

In the current year 2005 Regt. personnel attended over 500 courses.

We lost a total of 28 soldiers to releases of various forms since Jul 05, however we initiated 9 of these releases. This represents an 11% attrition which is very good. There are currently only three active Request for Discharge in the Regt, we are at our highest manning and lowest attrition in years. This (I think) reflects the excellent work being done by leaders at all levels to provide exciting and challenging training. Discipline problems are also very low. These two facts taken together, indicate that morale is high and the soldiers are doing well.

Equipment

WO Galloway is pushing the Vanguard computer replacement project and a User Requirement has been written and should be out for completion later this year.

We have permanently mounted muzzle velocity chronographs on most of the guns, which gives us accurate MVs all the time. VACs is coming, we have two SSgts in Spain at the moment and expect the equipment in our hands in Sep / Oct. We will be training with it prior to Xmas and expect to be operational with VACs by mid 2007.

We are participating in a UAV trial in the Regt, we have resurrected 1 Locating Troop. The current plan is to be issued 5 airframes and 2 ground control units prior to Xmas and be operating them effectively in the New Year. We have selected three LBdrs to lead the push on this and they are currently attending training at Massey University.

Infrastructure

The new Air Defence (AD) building is being built with a completion date of early Nov. Once the AD troop moves into this building, we will put Locating Troop, Signals Troop and HQ Bty in the old AD bldg. Hopefully we can create a RQM out of the old simulator room as well.

Hopefully the School of Artillery will receive a new building next year, we are waiting to find out if it will be built in Linton or Waiouru.

Regt History

The Regt History has undergone its final edit and we are trying to source a few more pictures. I remain confident we will see it published by the end of the year.

Op Deployments

We have a team of 8 in Bosnia as part of Op FORD. We are anticipating some involvement in Op CRIB (Afghanistan) in the near future, which is great.

Upcoming events

We have a busy time ahead over the next few months, key events are

• 22 - 30 Jul - Ex QUAD ENJOY - S of A LFX graduating the SSgts course.
• 1 - 25 Aug - 20 soldiers will be deployed to Brunei with Officer Cadet School as a Light Infantry
• 18 Aug - We are sending a gun detachment to Australia for the Lon Tan ceremony. We had a film company here in mid Jun filming for a Lon Tan movie for the history channel.
• 28 Aug - 22 Sep - Ex Gibraltar Hill, 161 Bty LFX in Tekapo
• 28 Sep - 16 Oct - 163 LFX incl Ex Takrouna with OCS

Conclusion

All in all, the RNZA is quite healthy. The soldiers are happy and productive and we are seeing progress on some of our strategic concerns.

LtCol Martin Neale, August 2006