Plan to base more soldiers at Thorney
Plans to bolster air defence unit
THE number of soldiers at one of the area’s main military bases is set to swell under ambitious plans tabled by a top military commander.
Lieutenant Colonel David Butt, the new commanding officer of 12 Regiment, Royal Artillery, has set his sights on boosting the numbers of the specialist air defence unit.
Based at Baker Barracks on Thorney Island, the regiment is currently made up of five batteries of about 600 soldiers. But Lt Col Butt hopes to increase this by a further battery during his tenure.
And the senior commander also hopes to forge a closer working bond with part-time gunners from 106 (Yeomanry) Regiment, Royal Artillery – the reservist counterparts of Lt Col Butt’s unit.
Speaking to The News, the married dad-of-two said he would be looking to reserves to help bolster 12 Regiment further during operational tours.
Central to this would be an integrated training strategy, which could see reservists joining regulars more often on exercise, and part-time units boosted with better equipment.
‘At the moment I’m figuring out a long-term plan to increase the size of 12 Regiment by an additional battery… Whatever that solution is, I think it has got to involve a vehicle type and training schedule which builds 106 Regiment into the thinking,’ Lt Col Butt said.
‘Whatever its design, it has to have 106 Regiment in that because if the worst does come to it and we did have to go and fight a war, 106 Regiment would thicken the regiment significantly to a point where it would be almost twice the size.
‘But I can’t do that if I train my people completely independently and design something that’s completely agnostic of 106 Regiment.’
Currently 106 Regiment has two batteries locally – 295 Battery in Hilsea and 457 Battery in Southampton.
Soldiers from each have previously joined their regular counterparts on operations, including tours to Afghanistan.
Lt Col Butt added: ‘When I was a fire support team commander with 6 Air Assault Brigade deployed in Afghanistan, at that time 10 per cent of all deployments were made up of reservists.
‘So that important statistic allowed the army to operate on an enduring war-footing for a decade.
‘If we didn’t have the synergy with our reservist units, it would have eaten away at our ability to do that sort of operation.