English: A member of 16th Regiment Royal Artillery carrying out a system check of his Rapier Field Standard C system.

The British Army’s 16th Regiment Royal Artillery, shown here deployed to Estonia under NATO’s Trans-Atlantic Capability Enhancement and Training (TACET) initiative.

As the only Short Range Air Defence regiment in the British forces, 16th Regiment Royal Artillery provides low-level Air Defence over the battlefield. Armed with the land based Rapier Air Defence system, it is responsible for defending essential resources such as airfields and bases. The Regiments Rapier system consists of a launcher with eight ready-to-fire missiles, a surveillance radar and tracker system.

Using their experience from conducting Air Defence and Air Surveillance operations around the world, the soldiers and airmen deployed to Estonia to help develop their host’s understanding of Ground Based Air Defence (GBAD), and exercise the effective Command and Control that is needed to conduct Airfield Defence operations.

Rapier Field Standard C is a technologically advanced short range air defence system developed by MBDA (previously Matra BAe Dynamics) and is in service with the Royal Artillery.

It is a 24-hour, all-weather guided weapon system with a primary role of providing limited area air defence cover against fixed wing aircraft, helicopters, Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAV) and cruise missiles.

It has the capability of engaging two targets at once. Rapier FSC is compact, mobile and air portable, making it suitable for worldwide operations.

• Organization: RAF
• Object Name: BAP-OFFICIAL-20160726-0106-0044
• Category: MOD
• Supplemental Categories: Rapier, Missiles, Weapons, Equipment
• Keywords: 16th Regiment Royal Artillery, Air Defence, Rapier Field Standard C, Rapier, Anti Air, Support Weapons, Weapons, Equipment, Ops, Baltic Air Policing, NATO, Estonia, Army, Regiments, The Royal Regiment of Artillery, 16th Regiment, 16 REGT, Training, International
• Country: ESTONIA