Royal Horse Artillery

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The Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) is a corps in the British Army. Two troops of Royal Horse Artillery were raised in January 1793 to provide fire support for the cavalry, joined by two more in November 1793. All RHA personnel were mounted.

Today, the RHA is operationally part of the Royal Artillery order of battle; there are currently four separate regiments that wear the cap badge of the RHA:

King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery is primarily a ceremonial unit and uses vintage 13 pounder guns for firing salutes. However, it also has an operational role as part of the territorial defence of the United Kingdom. The King’s Troop is located in St John's Wood, convenient for firing gun salutes in Hyde Park.
1st Regiment Royal Horse Artillery
3rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery (The Liverpool and Manchester Gunners)
*Both 1RHA and 3RHA are armed principally with the AS90 155 mm armoured self-propelled gun.
7th (Parachute) Regiment Royal Horse Artillery - this was formed in 1962 from the 33rd Parachute Light Regiment Royal Artillery and served until 1977 as the artillery regiment of 16th Parachute Brigade. After a spell in Germany as a non-airborne unit it returned to Aldershot where it joined 5th Airborne Brigade and once again assumed the airmobile role. It is currently part of 16th Air Assault Brigade based in Colchester armed with 105 mm Light Gun which is air-dropable from the C-130 Hercules.

Because it is part of the Royal Artillery structure, posting between the RA and the RHA is fairly common. However, within the Royal Artillery as a whole, the Royal Horse Artillery regiments are perceived as being an élite, and being posted to an RHA unit is seen as a significant career advancement.

The Royal Horse Artillery has provided the Queen's Guard on two occasions:

1 RHA - January 1979
7 RHA - March 1989

The Royal Horse Artillery is allied to the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery

Order of Precedence

When on parade with its guns, the Royal Horse Artillery takes precedence over every other regiment and corps in the British Army, and parades at the right of the line. Otherwise, it immediately follows the Household Cavalry.

External links

[King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery] (Official MoD page)
[1st Regiment Royal Horse Artillery] (Official MoD page)
[3rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery] (Official MoD page)

[7th Parachute Regiment Royal Horse Artillery] (Official MoD page)

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