The loss of 1st Armoured Regiment: What’s it mean to the RAAC?

The role of the Royal Australian Armoured Corps is to “locate, identify, capture, and destroy the enemy using fire, manoeuvre, and shock action, in coordination with other arms”.  

1 Armd Regt no longer has any such responsibility.  It is now an experimentation unit, with no RAAC role.  Should it continue, therefore, to be part of the RAAC?  

One of the consequences of ceasing to belong to the RAAC, is that of handing back RAAC accoutrements (i.e. silver badges and rank insignia); another is that the unit’s Standard should be laid up in accord with its consecrated status. 

Laying up the Standard, of course, also relinquishes the opportunity to parade the Battle-honours and Unit Citation for Gallantry.  So be it.

What steps need to be taken, if it’s decided that 1 Armd Regt should be removed from the RAAC?

How is it done, i.e. how is a unit which is no longer part of an Arms Corps, removed from that Corps?  

It’s never had to be done before (as far as anyone knows); but despite there being no precedent, there must be a way.  Maybe the RAAC Corps RSM has the answer.  Then again, maybe this is another matter about which he keeps his own counsel (as has happened before).

Maybe it’s as simple as just gazetting it in the Commonwealth Gazette: e.g. Gazette 1432:  1st Armoured Regiment is no longer part of the Royal Australian Armoured Corps (RAAC). 

Interestingly, advice has just been received that: 

“Where possible, Army prefers to retain unit titles and lineages rather than remove them from the order of battle, even where a role may not align with traditional naming conventions.”

This is the justification offered for retaining 1 Armd Regt as part of the RAAC. 

Is this saying that the role of the RAAC and its units has no significance; i.e. the RAAC could comprise, for example, the Honourable Company of Hatmakers or the Worshipful Society of Launderers?  Maybe not …

The latest RAAC Corps Journal, Ironsides, was published recently.  It states that:

The main Armoured Corps units are:

• The 2nd Cavalry Regiment operates the Abrams M1A2 SEPv3 Main Battle Tank and the Australian Light Armoured Family of Vehicles.
• The 2nd/14th Light Horse Regiment (Queensland Mounted Infantry) operates the Boxer Combat Reconnaissance Vehicle and the Australian Light Armoured Family of Vehicles.
• The 1st Armoured Regiment is the Army’s Combat Experimentation unit, focusing on delivering and integrating emerging technologies.
• The light Cavalry Regiments are Army Reserve units equipped with Hawkei Protected Mobility Vehicle – Light.

The protocol has been that RAAC units are listed in the order of seniority.  As the oldest RAAC unit, 1 Armd Regt has always been first.  Now it is third, after 2 Cav Regt and 2/14 LHR (QMI).

So, it seems that a unit’s ‘role’ has some significance after all … an ‘experimentation unit’ is of less significance (in terms of combat power), than a cavalry regiment.  Few people would disagree with that.

The question remains, however, should 1 Armd Regt continue to be part of the RAAC … as an experimentation unit?

Does the RAAC stand for anything, anymore?

Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Cameron, MC, RAAC (Ret’d)

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