1st Armoured Regiment (Australia)

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1st Armoured Regiment is an armoured regiment of the Australian Army and is the senior regiment of the Royal Australian Armoured Corps. The regiment is also the only one in the Australian Army to be equipped with main battle tanks. The regiment provides the basis for one of three battlegroups within 1 Brigade, the others coming from 5th and 7th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment.

History

The regiment was formed as the Australian 1st Armoured Car Squadron in 1946, following which it served as part of the occupation force in Japan following the Second World War. After the unit's return two years later, it was expanded to a full regiment and renamed as the 1st Armoured Regiment, to be equipped with the Centurion. Initially though it used the Churchill. Due of the unsuitability of the Churchill, Australia was unable to provide the requested armour support during the Korean War.

In 1967, the regiment's C Squadron was sent to Vietnam. Over the course of the next four years, all three of the regiment's operational squadrons would see service in Vietnam, gaining four battle honours in the process.

In 1976 the Centurion was replaced in service by the Leopard 1 (the Leopard 1 was selected over the M60 Patton following trials conducted by the Australian Medium Tank Trials Unit in 1972 and 1973). The Leopard MBT was replaced by 59 M1A1 Abrams AIM tanks on July 26 2007.

Battle Honours

Coral-Balmoral, Hat Dich, Binh Ba, Vietnam 1965-72

Alliances

- Royal Tank Regiment

Current organisation

Following the introduction of the M1A1 Abrams tanks the Regiment's structure will be:

Regimental Headquarters (2 M1A1 Abrams)
Three sabre Squadrons (A, B and C squadron) each with three tank troops and 13 M1A1 Abrams
Operational Support Squadron

Notes

References

Australian Army 1st Armoured Regiment
Australian National Audit Office Acquisition of the Abrams Main Battle Tank

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Last updated on Tuesday March 11, 2008 at 04:54:19 PDT (GMT -0700)
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