Artillery 2000

Royal Artillery Shows its Strength on the Salisbury Plain

Columnist Robin Buckland wrote about Artillery 2000 in “Journal of Military Ordnance”. We are grateful for permission for re-printing this article.

From 29th June and culminating in a public day on Saturday 1st July, a new exhibition was born. Artillery 2000 was the name of the event, held at the Royal Artillery School at Larkhill, on Salisbury Plain. The first day was very much a Trade and Press day, while day two was geared towards recruitment, and a finale of letting the public in on Saturday.

The highlight of the whole event took place in the afternoon, with a live fire demonstration for current equipment of the Royal Artillery. More of that in a moment.

There was lots happening around the event, which had a fun fair as well to keep the children happy, and plenty of food stalls. The exhibition tent had largely been vacated by the trade stands come Saturday, with just a few remaining. Outside were displays from the main supporters of the event, with Multidrive, Isuzu trucks, British Aerospace, ABRO, and MAN Trucks taking space with their product ranges. For the modelling enthusiast it was useful to see such as the MAN military trucks displayed with just cab and chassis, leaving the chassis detail plain to see. All variety of equipment was on display, from command and control equipment, through simulators, radars, personal protective clothing, mine protected vehicles, and even meteorological equipment. All manner of things that largely relate to the artillery arms.

Smaller show arenas held activities such as tug-o-war competitions while another had various displays, including artillery through the ages. With Roman Gladiators, English Civil War hand-hauled guns, and a WWI horse-drawn artillery team, there was plenty to keep everyone interested. On display were various bits of Royal Artillery equipment, including AS90 and the 105mm gun of course, such as Rapier systems, Cymbeline Radar on an FV432 chassis, Warrior Artillery Observation vehicle, and a rail launched Army Drone. Especially interesting was to see a stowed example alongside, showing how it is packed away into a standard Land Rover.

One company, TFL, was displaying a couple of mine protected personnel carriers, both on show in white UN markings. These were being driven around a display course, and were still available for the public to get a ride on Saturday. The larger of the two was the RG 31 Nyala. With an armoured body and bulletproof glass, with escape hatches out the roof, I have to say it was comfortable to ride in and seemed easy enough for the driver to handle.

Starting at 2:30 in the afternoon came the main event, as the Live Fire demonstration started. With a crescent of some 20,000 people behind them, six 105mm guns were set up, their crew standing smartly beside them, and they fired to a target on the opposite hillside, directly to our front. This was quickly followed with another battery of six more guns being pulled in behind Reynolds Broughton gun tractors, and setting up to fire, all within three minutes. This left us with a line of twelve, but clearly some more gun positions remaining. The next stage saw an RAF Hercules fly in from our left, and land on a grass strip a short distance in front of the (now silent) guns. This off-loaded another 105mm, towed by a Pinzgauer, which drove up to the emplacement. As this happened, two further Hercules flew over, dropping palletized gun, towing vehicle and ammunition. This released the first Hercules to depart right. Next step was the sudden arrival beside the crowd as an RAF Puma, having crept in low and unnoticed, climbed up in front of us, went to the hover, and threw out ropes for the gun crew to abseil down. That done, it dropped its nose to gain speed and departed right. Behind it, a Chinook brought in two more guns as an underslung load, dropping these before landing to let out the gun crew. With two more guns brought on behind over-snow vehicles, it brought our total to some eighteen 105mm guns, all in one row. The finishing touch to this was yet another Hercules from which parachuted further gun crew, making two passes for about a dozen men to jump on each pass.

All this would need some protection, so two HVM (High Velocity Missile) SAM (Surface-to-Air Missile) launchers. Based on the CVR(T) chassis, this threw up clouds of dust as it sped across the arena. Tracking a drone somewhere in the distance, these fired on it with what can best be described as a loud crack. This was followed by six AS90s driving on and lining up in front of the gun line. In unison they turned their turrets and raised their gun barrels down range. Their firing impacted on the far hillside once more. Turrets rotated again, all six drove on, turning just in front of our position in the crowd, before taking position on one end of the gun line, and while an additional six drove on to the far end. So, the gun line now contained twelve AS90s and eighteen 105mm guns. If that wasn’t enough, two MLRS (Multiple Launch Rocket System) drove in, one to either end. With all this lined up, as well as one example of the latest AS90 variant, with the 52 calibre barrel, they all opened fire on the target areas. The noise and action, including the rush of the rockets firing from MLRS, involved was impressive, with quite a wait from firing to seeing the shells explode in the distance, and a further pause before the sound of the explosions reached us. One thing which I think surprised me most was the ability to actually see the shells from the AS90s in flight as they left the guns. While I had read of this, I had not expected them to be so easy to see somehow.

Getting out of the show ground was a long and annoying bottleneck, which I believe could have been improved, however, it was a bright and enjoyable day which made it all worth it. Provided next year’s takes place, I will certainly want to go again.