16th Regiment Royal Artillery


16 Regiment Royal Artillery is a regiment of the Royal Regiment of Artillery in the British Army. It currently serves in the air defence role, and is equipped with the Rapier FSC Short Range Air Defence missile system and the Land Environment Air Picture Provision system. One of its Rapier Batteries is always deployed to the Falkland Islands.

History

The regiment was established in 1947 when 2nd Coast Regiment Royal Artillery was retitled 16 Coast Regiment Royal Artillery. As 16 Light Air Defence Regiment it was deployed to Borneo in 1965. It undertook tours in Northern Ireland during the Troubles in 1970, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1979 and 1988 and 14 Battery took part in the Falklands War in 1982.
In August 2007, the Regiment relocated to St George's Barracks in Rutland from Woolwich. Its departure from the Royal Artillery Barracks, where the Royal Regiment of Artillery had been based since 1716, was marked with a ceremony on 25 July 2007. In July 2014 the Regiment moved to Baker Barracks, Thorney Island.
The Regiment was part of the 2012 London Olympics Air Security Force, deploying Rapier FSC Ground Based Air Defence systems as part of Exercise Olympic Guardian.

Role

The regiment is equipped with the Rapier Field Standard C SHORAD missile system providing local area air defence to land formations and airfields. It also provides a Land Environment Air Picture Provision capability to land formation HQs which provides a local Recognised Air Picture. Previously it also provided the now out of service Counter Rocket, Artillery, and Mortar C-RAM and Automated Sense & Warn Urgent Operational Requirement capabilities on Operation TELIC and Operation HERRICK respectively.

Batteries

The unit has the following batteries: