During July 2025, the first members of The King’s Gurkha Artillery were learning to be Gunners and they got to fire the L118 Light Gun. The gun came into service 50 years ago and our Gurkhas, who have all currently transferred from other parts of the Brigade of Gurkhas, have had to take on board a lot of information to operate a weapon like the L118.
The KGA, which is the Army’s newest regiment and is part of the Royal Artillery, drew its initial batch of soldiers from existing Gurkha units.
Having been trained on L118, the KGA went on Exercise COMBINED WARRIOR in Brecon. This takes place three times a year and involves infanteers, engineers and artillery coming together, each focusing on their own training goals. But this was the first time the Gurkhas had taken part as gunners. For this exercise, just two Gurkhas were working on each gun detachment, operating with other more experienced gunners.
When the first King’s Gurkha Artillery soldiers get further along with their training, they will be able to operate the guns with a full Gurkha team.
During the exercise, they had to dig gun pits, defend positions, deal with indirect fire and counter battery fire, expertly provided by a special effects team, as well as drones, casualties and platoon attacks.
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In the future Gunners will eventually be operating the Swedish-designed Archer platform, which will propel the Royal Artillery forward as a fighting force in the modern world.
