Record drop in final hit

Grounded: Guns land in DZ Britto during Ex Denique Ledo. Photos by Bill Cunneen

Heavy metal: Alpha Gun being moved at the DZ into its firing position after its removal from the air drop platform DE-05.

HAMEL guns rained from the skies over Singleton Military Training Area as A Fd Bty conducted a parachute insertion in October during their final live fire exercise for the year.

Up in smoke: Alpha Gun conducts a fire mission.

62 personnel jumped and six guns were dropped into Drop zones Britto and Hinge from three C130 aircraft during Exercise Denique Ledo (Final Hit), which was the largest airdrop of artillery pieces in A Fd Bty’s 134-year history.

The exercise was aimed at demonstrating the full operational capability of A Fd Bty as well as the cooperation between the unit and the RAAF.

BC Maj Dave Kelly said it was an extremely important part of their job in the airborne battle group to be able to de-rig so many guns and bring them into action from a drop zone.

BSM WO2 David Rayment said that it was a great way to wrap up a successful year for the battery.

“After the drop the Battery Commander pushed us up with a live fire and movement culminating in a defensive practice using the 105mm and small arms,” he said.

“Thanks to the help of 3RAR and the RAAF we were able to meet all of our objectives.”