The Army has re-roled one squadron of the 1st Armoured Regiment from a combat formation based on the Abrams M1A1 main battle tank into an experimentation unit under its Army Accelerated Capability Pipeline (AACP).
C Squadron of the 1st Armoured Regiment has taken on the experimentation role and has been conducting trials with new technologies such as unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), small unmanned aerial systems (SUAS) and remote weapons systems (RWS) at Puckapunyal over the last eight weeks.
Speaking at the inaugural ADM South Australian Defence Summit in Adelaide on 28 August, the Commanding Officer of the Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Jake Penley noted that the new role is not replace the work being done by CASG, but to explore pathways for getting emerging technology into the hands of the warfighter quickly, and at scale.
“We don’t conduct test and evaluation on Army’s new M1A2 tanks or self-propelled howitzers, LTCOL Penley said. “We are best used for short cycle test and evaluation."
The intent of the AACP is to provide Army with an asymmetrical advantage that can counter an adversary’s numerical superiority and the goal is to transition successful technology into Army’s combat and combat support units in less than 24 months.
“We need to find a way to produce asymmetric effect in a value for money outcome,” LTCOL Penley added.
The Commanding Officer of C Squadron, 1st Armoured Regiment Major Thomas Fisher, said that Initial Operational Capability (IOC) in the unit’s new role is expected to occur on 1 February 2025.
“We are moving from an armoured unit focussed on land combat to a dedicated experimentation force,” MAJ Fisher explained.
Held at the Adelaide Convention Centre between 27 and 29 August, the inaugural ADM Defence Summit attracted around 250 people across the three-day event.
Day one was hosted by Defence and given over to workshops, with a focus on the AUKUS partnership. The second day was the main ADM conference, which saw a range of speakers addressing the important defence matters affecting the state. The final day focussed on artificial intelligence and was hosted by Defence and the University of South Australia.