Course puts smiles on soldiers’ faces

It sounded like thunder as 155mm rounds from AS9 Huntsman self-propelled howitzers struck targets across Puckapunyal Training Area.

The first live fire for the Australian-made vehicles marked completion of training for a battery of soldiers from Townsville’s 4 Regt, RAA, on the first AS9 operator course.

Over three-and-a-half months, they learnt to operate advanced onboard systems, rapidly bring the gun into action, and qualified on vehicle positions from loader to driver, assistant gunner and gunner.

Sgt Brendan Waine said seeing their training come together during the final live fire was a proud moment.

“Being at the end of the course and actually being able to do the job puts a smile on your face,” he said.

Soldiers spent the course learning the inner workings of the hull and turret systems before progressing to live fire.

Once their additional courses are complete, they’ll begin unit-level training to further develop procedures and build experience.

“We’ll be going straight back to the unit to develop all the SOPs and getting familiar and becoming better SMEs on it,” Sgt Waine said.

Gnr Maxwell Cleal, who has served for two years on towed artillery, said the course introduced soldiers to a completely different style of artillery, including driving tracked vehicles.

They completed a minimum of 17 hours driving the AS9, including at night, and hatch-down drills.

“Driving a tracked vehicle is something I never thought I would do, but it’s definitely been one of the highlights of the course,” Gnr Cleal said.

He said crews learnt to bring the vehicle rapidly into action and move quickly between firing positions, while also adapting to the advanced technology.

Compared to the older M777, he said the AS9 Huntsman was faster, easier to manoeuvre and quicker to bring into action.

“The gunner puts all the information into the system, presses a button and it lays the gun,” he said.

The tracked platform allowed crews to fire once the gun came into action instead of going through the manual set-up process required on the M777.

“It’s more deadly, being able to just shoot straight away,” Gnr Cleal said.

Bombardiers and sergeants remained at Puckapunyal following the operators’ course to complete the commanders’ component.

Bdr Nick Burrough said the commander role combined detachment commander and crew commander responsibilities.

He said commanders were responsible for navigating, directing the driver through the turret hatch, and managing the crew through the vehicle’s intercom.

Compared to the M777, Bdr Burrough said commanders now had greater responsibility managing the gun and vehicle while monitoring systems and crew tasks during live fires.

“You’re fully in charge of the vehicle and where it’s going,” he said.

“You can talk to your gunner, check the running stats of the engine and direct the driver through the intercom system.

“It’s top-class technology. No one’s at the level this vehicle’s at.”

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