Artillery School

The Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery is the Army's senior service. The Regiment originated on 20 October 1871, when the first units of Canada's Permanent Force, "A" and "B" Batteries of Garrison Artillery were authorized. Stationed at Kingston and Quebec respectively, the Batteries also functioned as Schools of Gunnery.

Every Regiment or Corps in the Canadian Forces (Army) has colours or battle honours of which it is justly proud. After the Crimean War, Queen Victoria permitted the Royal Artillery the unique distinction of using its guns as its colours. The RCA has also adopted this practice.

As quoted in the Regulation and Orders for the active Militia of the Dominion of Canada 1870, "a Battery of Artillery with its guns is equivalent to a Battalion with its colours, and is to be saluted accordingly."

The mission of the Artillery School is to sustain and conduct artillery advance qualifications, advanced artillery leadership qualifications, basic artillery officer requirements, specialized qualifications and assigned centre of excellence responsibilities on behalf of the Army.

The Artillery School consists of five Batteries: Headquarters Battery, Gunnery Training Battery, Doctrine and Tactics Battery, Maintenance Training Battery and W Battery.

Headquarters Battery consists of Administration Troop, Operations Troop, Information Technology and Simulation Troop and Field, Air Defence and Maintenance Standards Troops. It is responsible for the design and evaluation of all Artillery courses, the administration and operation of the School and ADP and simulation services provided to the School.

Gunnery Training Battery plans and conducts basic and advanced training courses at the Artillery School. It is responsible for administering advanced classification training such as the Instructor-in-Gunnery, Assistant Instructor-in-Gunnery and all basic artillery officer and junior NCO technical and leadership courses. It also assists in the development of the tactics for Field and Air Defence weapons and provide instruction on Artillery tactics to other Schools and units.

Doctrine and Tactics Battery plans and conducts advanced courses such as the Artillery Staff Duties course and Master Gunner course. It is also responsible for developing doctrine and tactics for Air Defence, Field and Locating artillery. The Battery consists of a headquarters element, a tactics troop and a locating/targeting troop.

Maintenance Training Battery plans and conducts individual maintenance training for FCS, Weapons, LCIS and vehicle technicians. The Battery maintains the status of the School's recognition as the "Centre of Excellence" for all AD Prime Mission Equipment (PME) maintenance training, for all CF AD Regiments technicians, as well as training on land based radar equipment for the entire Canadian Forces.

W Battery consists of Field Artillery and Air Defence Artillery personnel. It provides all necessary guns, vehicles, equipment and personnel to support training at the School, and carries out other tasks as assigned by the Combat Training Centre. W Battery also performs the Base Auxiliary Security Force function for CFB Gagetown.

The Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery is allied with the Royal Regiment of Artillery. By virtue of this alliance, the RCA assumed in place of Battle Honours the mottos "UBIQUE" meaning "Everywhere" and "Quo Fas et Gloria Ducunt" meaning "Whither right and glory lead". To this day this remains very true and is a source of pride for all gunners.

ADATS firing in the Gagetown Ranges