Hi there,

Thank you for your question. Can you confirm which unit you are talking about? The Royal Artillery has two batterys which has Special Observers but they have very different roles.

148 (Meiktila) Commando Forward Observation Battery is a specialist Naval Gunfire Support Forward Observation (NGSFO) unit within 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery supporting 3 Commando Brigade Royal Marines. They are based at RM Poole in Dorset.

4/73 (Sphinx) Special Observation Post Battery Royal Artillery is a Surveillance and Target Acquisition (STA) Patrol unit within 5th Regiment Royal Artillery. They are based in Catterick, North Yorkshire.

148 Battery provides Fire Support Teams (FSTs) to control and co-ordinate Naval fires from Royal Navy and allied ships, land based air delivered munitions, artillery fire and air delivered munitions.

All personnel within the battery are Royal Marine Commando and parachute trained.

The unit conducts training in various climates including mountain, arctic, jungle, desert and temperate. It regularly deploys with Royal Marines units to Norway for annual cold weather warfare training and to Belize for jungle warfare training.

The Special Observers in 4/73 Battery deploy a specialist force on the ground at range, in close proximity to the enemy. They locate and prosecute targets as required. Working as the ISTAR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance) group, the STA Patrols Troop are subject matter experts on Static Covert Surveillance (SCS) and complement the reconnaissance activity conducted by other Ground Manned Reconnaissance (GMR) forces in the Brigade and Division.

To join either Battery you would need to complete Phase 2 Training with the Royal Artillery and then be posted to either 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery, or 5th Regiment Royal Artillery. You would then need to complete selection and the required specialist courses. Both batterys provide essential support to land and maritime forces, as well as great opportunities for soldiers.

I hope this goes some way to answering your question but if you’d like to know anything more specific please ask.

Katie

30 September, 2019 11:31

can you do this as a reservist ??

14 January, 2020 15:39

You can, through the Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) based in Finsbury Barracks in Greater London.

14 January, 2020 15:48

I can see that they are based in the middle of London, is they not any units in the north/north east of England

14 January, 2020 15:57

I’m afraid the special observers are only based in London but there are lots of other Reservist units in the North and North East. Head over to the Army recruiting page to find out what units are near you.

https://apply.army.mod.uk/what-we-offer/reserve-soldier?cid=semp2824370908&ef_id=Cj0KCQiAhojzBRC3ARIsAGtNtHWwp1zSljEGtfE8jBKJk0-z0dWDXPSir52A2FM2teLprukPJITwcpEaAhbyEALw_wcB:G:s&s_kwcid=AL!8141!3!323097707990!b!!g!!%2Barmy%20%2Breserve#

06 March, 2020 22:51