Joining RAAC any tips.

[pockyclypse]

Hi all im new here and have found this site to be a wealth of knowledge and information. Having said that im currently in the process of joining the Royal Australian Army Artillery corps as a Weapon Locating Radar Operator ( ECN271) and was just wondering if anyone had any info on basic training, IET, and general service life that might help me out. Im going soon to my assesment day and to date have found this a very slow process but im a patient kind of guy so its all good. i know that my time at kapooka will be hard so if anyone who's been there has some advice im all ears.

thanks in advance.

pockyclypse

 

[Brycec]

Hi all im new here and have found this site to be a wealth of knowledge and information. Having said that im currently in the process of joining the Royal Australian Army Artillery corps as a Weapon Locating Radar Operator ( ECN271) and was just wondering if anyone had any info on basic training, IET, and general service life that might help me out. Im going soon to my assesment day and to date have found this a very slow process but im a patient kind of guy so its all good. i know that my time at kapooka will be hard so if anyone who's been there has some advice im all ears.

thanks in advance.

pockyclypse

Yeah, i'm no expert, but I thought RAAC was Royal Australian Armoured Corp. Im actually finding myself drawn to the RAAC more and more as I do more and more research. Making a decision on what to do in the army is gonna kill me.

 

[Aussie Digger]

Hi all im new here and have found this site to be a wealth of knowledge and information. Having said that im currently in the process of joining the Royal Australian Army Artillery corps as a Weapon Locating Radar Operator ( ECN271) and was just wondering if anyone had any info on basic training, IET, and general service life that might help me out. Im going soon to my assesment day and to date have found this a very slow process but im a patient kind of guy so its all good. i know that my time at kapooka will be hard so if anyone who's been there has some advice im all ears.

thanks in advance.

pockyclypse

As has already been said, RAAC is the Royal Australia Armoured Corps. You appear to be joining, RRAA: Royal Regiment Australian Artillery.

Artillery types are very strange. My biggest tip? Join armour instead. No manhandling of guns that way, but I guess if you're going to be a weapons locating radar operator, get ready to spend some time in the desert...

 

[Waylander]

Aaaah, finally one man here in this forum who doesn't want to become a pilot or mud crawling infantryman.

Go join Armoured Corps! :mrgreen :nutkick

 

[pockyclypse]

yes sorry aussie digger you are right not RAAC but the RRAA..havent looked to much into the armoured corp but i will certainly check it out. my asessment is this wednesday (11/apr) i am confident that all will go well. will let you know how i go. i have been to the ARTC website they have some videos of recruit training this was very helpful for me to get an understanding of what basic training /service life will be like.



pockyclypse

 

[Aussie Digger]

yes sorry aussie digger you are right not RAAC but the RRAA..havent looked to much into the armoured corp but i will certainly check it out. my asessment is this wednesday (11/apr) i am confident that all will go well. will let you know how i go. i have been to the ARTC website they have some videos of recruit training this was very helpful for me to get an understanding of what basic training /service life will be like.



pockyclypse

You're right mate. Wasn't trying to criticise you, just "inform you" for your JOES day, if that's what's on next Thursday. I believe they ask you a heap of those sorts of questions these days. Though the fact that you actually SHOWED up I would have thought would be sufficient given our recruiting troubles these days, but nevermind.

The only questions I recall from when I joined, where from the pyschologist who told me in no uncertain terms that he thought I was an alcoholic because I mentioned that considering I was at the tender age of 18, I might have 3-5 drinks more than once a week!!!
I wish I could meet him NOW. I'll tell him a thing or 2 about Army life that'd probably shock him to death...

Naked "aircraft carriers" down the hallways of the barracks after a 36 hour drinking binge just for starters... :unknown

 

[pockyclypse]

Sounds like i have a lot to look forward to in regards to comradeship.. I have been for my JOES day already that was a piece of cake its the asessment day that sounds hard especially the pyschologist interview, but it will be all good.

I just cant wait till its all over the application process i mean cant wait to get to kapooka and get started.

pockyclypse.

 

[pockyclypse]

Good news guys i went to my asessment day at Defence Force Recruiting in Brisbane on wed/11/april and went really well got through all my interviews with no problems ( psycologist, medical and defece interviewer ) just have to do my pre enlistment fitness asessment and my blood test which i did yesterday. my PFA is on next friday once i pass that i will be told my enlistment date so all is progressing well. hopefully not too much of a wait for enlistment.

pockyclypse

 

[Tasman]

Good news guys i went to my asessment day at Defence Force Recruiting in Brisbane on wed/11/april and went really well got through all my interviews with no problems ( psycologist, medical and defece interviewer ) just have to do my pre enlistment fitness asessment and my blood test which i did yesterday. my PFA is on next friday once i pass that i will be told my enlistment date so all is progressing well. hopefully not too much of a wait for enlistment.

pockyclypse

That's really good to hear. I hope the PFA goes well.

Cheers

 

[pockyclypse]

Well i went for my PFA ( pre enlistment fitness asessment ) and smashed it it was so easy so now i am just waiting for a posistion to become available and then i will get an enlistment date my defence recruiter tells me i will probably have to do another PFA before i get enlisted as you have to do one every 4 weeks, they are only valid for that long so now the waiting begins.

Pockyclypse

 

[Tasman]

Well i went for my PFA ( pre enlistment fitness asessment ) and smashed it it was so easy so now i am just waiting for a posistion to become available and then i will get an enlistment date my defence recruiter tells me i will probably have to do another PFA before i get enlisted as you have to do one every 4 weeks, they are only valid for that long so now the waiting begins.

Pockyclypse

The fact that you have to wait at all demonstrates to me that our recruiting system is a shambles. With the present shortages of personnel in all three services the ADF should be bending over backwards to get you signed up and in training before you change your mind or get a good job offer elsewhere.

Hope you don't have to wait too long.

Cheers

 

[AGRA]

Very good move 'Gunner Elect' Pockyclypse. Arty is the place to be (say Arty as it’s written and this is what everyone calls it). After recruit training and ECN training you’ll most likely end up in Brisbane in 131 S.T.A Battery working on WLRs (Weapon Locating Radars). Much of an ECN 271’s job is stuffing around with this ridiculous map barrel thing on the WLR (they were designed in the 1980s). Though these are being replaced in the next 1-2 years with a proper flat screen with GIS. The future (10 years or so) will see the WLRs integrated in with the next GBAD system (Ground Based Air Defence) so this will open up posting ops in Adelaide. So when you make sergeant you can expect to be a key player in the air battle, shooting down everything from Su-27s to 82mm mortar bomb incomings.

Fire Mission AGRA!

AGRA: Army Group Royal Artillery
Frontage: 750m x 750m
Objective: Inform the Swarm

 

[Waylander]

Artillery knows no friend or foe just good or bad targets.

 

[AGRA]

Artillery knows no friend or foe just good or bad targets.

They are all good targets...

And as Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, 1740-1786 once said:

"Artillery adds dignity to what would otherwise be a vulgar brawl."

Fire Mission AGRA!

AGRA: Army Group Royal Artillery
Frontage: 750m x 750m
Objective: Inform the Swarm

 

[Waylander]

Hehe.

After I saw my first artillery strike I never understood why he said this.

 

[Brycec]

Napolean heard a man say "god favours our cause."
Napolean replied "God favours the cause which has the most artillery."

 

[AGRA]

After I saw my first artillery strike I never understood why he said this.

Is this not beauty?

 

[Aussie Digger]

Is this not beauty?

Depends which side of the guns you're on I suppose...

 

[pockyclypse]

thanks AGRA for the heads up on "arty" terminology. i was thinking the same thing, with all the add's on t.v. and in the paper i would have thought that it would all happen really quickly ( my enlistment i mean ) but this is not the case. but as stated before i am a patient guy. my defence recruiter has informed me that i could possibly looking at an enlistment in june/july but nothing is confirmed or guaranteed so stll i wait..and that picture AGRA you posted can you tell me where it was taken and whats going on in the picture thanks.

pockyclypse

 

[AGRA]

The process in the outsourced recruitment system is a nightmare. Its been fixed a lot in the last 6-12 months because of the scandal it caused. In the old days (1990s) we would have had you on the bus to Kapooka in 2-3 weeks after only one day of assessment....

The picture is from Sweden, Karlskoga the home of Bofors, and was taken with a special high speed camera. I have plenty of photos of Aussie arty hitting targets but its no where near as exciting.

What's happening is two 155mm bombs/shells/grenades (depending on your terminology) are 'Prox' detonating. Prox stands for proximity and is a method where either a mechanical timer or a radar/laser is used to detonate the shells above the target to spray it with splinters (commonly mislabelled 'shrapnel' but this is actually an older technique of developing fragments from a shell) from above. As you can see from the very acute angle between the flight path of the shells and the ground the rounds have been fired from extreme range, probably >25km. It is much better to have the rounds descend from above to get a better on target distribution of splinters.