Royal Australian Armoured Corps

Royal Australian Armoured Corps
Active	9 July 1941 – Present
Country	Australia
Branch	Army
Type	Corps
Role	Armour
Size	4 Regular Regiments 5 Reserve Regiments
Commanders
Colonel-in-Chief	HRH The Prince of Wales

The Royal Australian Armoured Corps (RAAC) is a corps in the Australian Army. The corps was formed on 9 July 1941 as the Australian Armoured Corps to provide personnel to use Armoured Fighting Vehicles. The corps has its origins in the Australian Tank Corps, which was formed in 1928.^[1] The RAAC is the senior arms corps within the army and was granted the Royal prefix in 1948. Units of the RAAC have included tank, reconnaissance and armoured personnel-carrier regiments.^[2]

Current units

• Regular Army
  • 1st Armoured Regiment – Armoured
  • 2nd Cavalry Regiment – Reconnaissance
  • 2nd/14th Light Horse Regiment (Queensland Mounted Infantry) – Reconnaissance
  • School of Armour – Training Regiment
• Army Reserve
  • 1st/15th Royal New South Wales Lancers – Light cavalry / Reconnaissance
  • 3rd/9th Light Horse (South Australia Mounted Rifles) – Light cavalry / Reconnaissance
  • B Squadron, 3rd/4th Cavalry Regiment – Inactive
  • 4th/19th Prince of Wales's Light Horse – Light cavalry / Reconnaissance
  • A Squadron, 10th Light Horse Regiment – Light cavalry / Reconnaissance
  • 12th/16th Hunter River Lancers – Light Armoured

Equipment

The RAAC is primarily equipped with three types of vehicle:

• M1A1 Abrams – the Abrams is Australia's main battle tank (MBT), and equips 1st Armoured Regiment.
• ASLAV – the ASLAV is a variant of the LAV 25 vehicle designed specifically for the Australian Army, and is used in the armoured reconnaissance role with 2nd Cavalry Regiment and 2nd/14th Light Horse Regiment, as well as 1st Armoued Regiment as part of the armoured cavalry regiment (ACR)
• M113B – the M113 is an armoured personnel carrier

Deployments

• Japan : 1946–1949
• Vietnam : 1965–1971
• East Timor : 1999 – Present
• Iraq : 2003 – 2008
• Afghanistan : 2006 – Present

See also

• List of Australian armoured units
• Tanks in the Australian Army
• The Lancer Band
• Royal Armoured Corps
• Royal Canadian Armoured Corps
• Royal New Zealand Armoured Corps
• Australian Armoured Units of World War II

Notes

1. Jobson 2009, p. 118.
2. Dennis (et al) 2008, p. 461.

References

• Dennis, Peter; Grey, Jeffrey; Morris, Ewan; Prior, Robin; Bou, Jean (2008). The Oxford Companion to Australian Military History (Second ed.). Melbourne: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195517849.
• Jobson, Christopher (2009). Looking Forward, Looking Back: Customs and Traditions of the Australian Army. Wavell Heights, Queensland: Big Sky Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9803251-6-4.