Last Army Artillery Rounds In Germany Go Out With A Bang

What could be the last ever AS90 rounds have been fired by 26 Regiment Royal Artillery.

It comes during a busy year for the regiment - its troops are currently deployed to Estonia as part of the Enhanced Forward Presence.

They also make up NATO's Very High Readiness Joint Task Force, and the Vanguard Armoured Infantry Brigade - the UK's readiness force.

"To keep ourselves at readiness we've got to be prepared to deploy anywhere, at any time, into any sort of circumstance," says Lt Col Karl Harris, Commanding Officer, 26 Regt RA.

"The farthest end of the spectrum would be high intensity war fighting - a lot of fire power, a lot of movement, a lot of camouflage, some good gritty hard soldiering."

26 Regiment are due to move on to the multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) in 2019, but before then they need to have all soldiers ready to deploy as a Close Support Artillery Regiment.

The AS90 is a self-propelled howitzer able to fire at targets over 24km away.

During a week at Sennelager for the regiment, six AS90s have fire more than 1,800 rounds by their seven personnel.

After completion of the readiness year, 26 Regiment Royal Artillery will begin the process of re-rolling to become a divisional fires regiment equipped with the MLRS rocket launch system.