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3rd/9th Live Fire (new photos added 01Jun06)
I attended the annual live fire exercise of 3rd/9th South Australian Mounted Rifles (Light Horse)..... Despite the fact I'm not from Cavalry (if you know the right people your welcome anywhere :wink: )
Anyway, 3rd/9th are losing their M113's and being re-roled as light cavalry recon. They are getting Long Range Patrol Vehicles (LRPV/LRRPV), the same as the SAS are currently using in Afghanistan. So this was their last battle run under armour. Also in support for the main battle run was 48th Field Battery, and engineers from 3rd Field Squadron. There were also elements there from 144 signals squadron, 10th/27th Infantry Battalion, 3rd Health Support Battalion and 9th Combat Services Support Battalion working in conjunction.
We were located at the Cultana Military Training Area near Port Augusta and Fort Baxter (baxter detention centre). It was freezing there at night, but not so bad during the day. It was a pretty awesome sight to see 160kg of HE set off from 2km away in an OP, and I've got a nice pic of that (see below)... but anyway, I wont bore you with details, I'll just show you a few photos.
Sitting on the 2iC's (Captain VantHoff) APC. Me on the left, my mates Dave (middle) and Jacko (right). This was taken on top of monument hill which was the sight for the OP.
Engineers breaching concrete obstacles (big explosion - 1 of 2 in this breach) as artillery continues to land of the target which was the 79 feature. Just for reference, the little boxy things at the base of the explosion are the M113's, they were 25m away from the blast. Awesome stuff.
Number 2 troop advancing up monument hill to secure the OP. Only gun cars moved with this patrol. The spanner and winch cars (recovery and RAEME) vehicles stayed behind in an LUP.
My mate Lt. Hains commanding 3 troop on the move from the day hide to the night loc, 2 hours drive in the dark away..... it was a long a noisy drive. Bloody annoying by the end, although somehow I managed to sleep for a while.
Myself in the turret of my mate Flynn's M113
More to follow over.
I attended the annual live fire exercise of 3rd/9th South Australian Mounted Rifles (Light Horse)..... Despite the fact I'm not from Cavalry (if you know the right people your welcome anywhere :wink: )
Anyway, 3rd/9th are losing their M113's and being re-roled as light cavalry recon. They are getting Long Range Patrol Vehicles (LRPV/LRRPV), the same as the SAS are currently using in Afghanistan. So this was their last battle run under armour. Also in support for the main battle run was 48th Field Battery, and engineers from 3rd Field Squadron. There were also elements there from 144 signals squadron, 10th/27th Infantry Battalion, 3rd Health Support Battalion and 9th Combat Services Support Battalion working in conjunction.
We were located at the Cultana Military Training Area near Port Augusta and Fort Baxter (baxter detention centre). It was freezing there at night, but not so bad during the day. It was a pretty awesome sight to see 160kg of HE set off from 2km away in an OP, and I've got a nice pic of that (see below)... but anyway, I wont bore you with details, I'll just show you a few photos.
Sitting on the 2iC's (Captain VantHoff) APC. Me on the left, my mates Dave (middle) and Jacko (right). This was taken on top of monument hill which was the sight for the OP.
Engineers breaching concrete obstacles (big explosion - 1 of 2 in this breach) as artillery continues to land of the target which was the 79 feature. Just for reference, the little boxy things at the base of the explosion are the M113's, they were 25m away from the blast. Awesome stuff.
Number 2 troop advancing up monument hill to secure the OP. Only gun cars moved with this patrol. The spanner and winch cars (recovery and RAEME) vehicles stayed behind in an LUP.
My mate Lt. Hains commanding 3 troop on the move from the day hide to the night loc, 2 hours drive in the dark away..... it was a long a noisy drive. Bloody annoying by the end, although somehow I managed to sleep for a while.
Myself in the turret of my mate Flynn's M113
More to follow over.
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