In a piece of timing that would not be out of place in political satire, the UK government has created a new artillery unit at the same time as removing its mainline artillery system from service.
The newly created King’s Gurkha Artillery (KGA) – on the face of it a promising boost to a British Army seeking additional lethality on the battlefield – will lack any medium- or long-range artillery of its own, instead sharing the small, temporary (but capable), Archer 155mm force with other units as they rotate through deployments in Estonia and Poland.
Detailed in newly released UK government information, the KGA, which will sit within the British Army’s Ghurka Brigade, will undergo initial training on the L118 105mm light gun before moving to the 155mm Archer self-propelled howitzer.
With the AS90 no longer operated by the British Army, the only artillery available over the next four-to-five years will be the 14-strong Archer battery and 126 L118 systems.
The end goal, as stated by the UK government, is to see the KGA operate the planned RCH 155 artillery platform, currently being jointly developed by the UK and Germany.
The RCH 155 has an initial operating capability with the British Army of 2029, with full operating capability to be reached by 2032.
However, there it is little room for delays to RCH 155 with Archer due to be retired from UK service in 2030, along with the L118 artillery.
The towed L118 light gun has a range of around 17km and has to be transported into position by vehicles such as the British Army’s Pinzgauer. The lack of mobility and short range leaves the L118-equipped units obsolete on a modern battlefield flooded with long-range fires and mass drone use.
In context, commercial drones, adapted for battlefield use, including strike, can have a range in excess of 10km, and in some cases, significantly beyond.
Effectively, barring the Cabrit-committed Archers, the British Army has no medium-to-long-range artillery capability. To borrow a term often attached to the Royal Navy, the KGA is a British Army artillery unit fitted for, but not with, actual artillery.
In addition, while there are ongoing programmes to increase the size of the UK’s M270 multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) fleet, on 29 April the UK government stated that “no final decision” had been taken on the procurement of 15 addition MLRS systems.
King’s Gurkha Artillery: new recruits or transfers?
A four-year timeline has been provided for the formation of the KGA, which will comprise a mix of existing Gurkhas in British Army service transferring to the new unit, and some new recruits taken in on an annual basis.
The intention is to build the rank structure of the KGA for the Brigade of Gurkhas, offering promotion and longer service prospects, and then follow with an inflow of new recruits.
This runs slightly contrary to the statement provided by the UK government at the announced creation of the KGA, which said the regiment would strengthen the country military capabilities “by taking on 400 Gurkha personnel”.
Crucially, a UK government official on 1 May stated that “no financial incentives have been offered” for positions in the KGA, with the new unit offering “career and development opportunities” instead.
The first recruits will finish initial training in November 2025 before going to Larkhill Garrison in Wiltshire, the home of the Royal Artillery for trade training.
Initially, training will be done on the L118 light gun, with additional training for the Archer 155mm system only taking place when the KGA rotates through to take position as part of Operation Cabrit, the UK’s enhanced forward presence in Estonia and Poland.
The Archer artillery force is committed to Cabrit as a capability, with units providing trained personnel as they enter the area of operations.
Currently, around 4,000 Gurkhas serve across many trades in the British Army. All Gurkhas are recruited from Nepal, with thousands of candidates competing annually for a limited number of places.
The concern, at least until 2029, is that the King’s Gurkha Artillery will be little more than a Potemkin artillery unit, an exercise in rebranding and reordering existing structures and offering nothing in terms of new military capability.
