Recon Forces

[purpledevil]

does anyone know what recon forces the regular army has? what sort of recon forces do they have witin the infantry?
apart from the SASR and 4RAR

thanks
matt

[This message has been edited by purpledevil (edited 05-15-2001).]

[abprar]

Each battalion has a Recon platoon.
I can only think of Norforce and the Pilbar regt as other recon forces.Cav and armour have recon but I think its all on vehicle.Besides that you got clearance divers in the navy for beach recon and the RAAF airfield defence might have recon elements.
Our forces are small so there isn't much,battalions depend on their recon platoons and SASR patrols for recon.



[This message has been edited by abprar (edited 05-16-2001).]

[dsumner]

If I rember correctly 2 AFDS is the RAAF ADG recon and QRF unit.

[donsalsa]

actually 2AFDS is a squadron in THE Airfield Defence Wing. Every airfield defence squadron, like other self-sustaining rifle type units, has a recon ellement. dsummer, did you write the article for specwarnet.com? It is very good and some of the info suggests you obviously have an inside source. Some is also just local rumours that noone in the squadrons takes seriously. oh and what about FNQR i have done a course through those guys and the certainly have some excellent recon style skills.

[This message has been edited by donsalsa (edited 05-16-2001).]

[purpledevil]

thanks for the responces, what sort of recon do the airfield defence units carry out??

thanks
matt

[dsumner]

Yes I wrote the ADG page for specwarnet. I need to update it and add some photos from ET. My source prefers to stay out of the lime light though. So I let him stay that way.

[dsumner]

If I tell he just may smack me on my wee-wee, so I'll let you make up your own mind.

[GAM47]

The term recon is not the official abbreviation of reconnaissance, the abbreviation to be used is recce, this is NATO standard. The term recon, has a totally different meaning in the Australian context. It is a Americanism that has crept in in recent years.

1 and 2 RAR have infantry recce pls, 3RAR has a para recce/pathfinder pl. 6RAR pl was disbanded on return from ETimor. 5/7RAR has a mechanised pl.

The three General Reserve units NorForce, PilRegt and 49Bn, are not reconnaissance units, their role is purely surveillance. Their training and equipment tables reflect this, of course much of operational requirements for surveillance are similar to recce tasking.

Whilst the two full time and two part time AD Sqn's (Airfield Defence Squadrons, not AFDS which is another incorrect abbreviation that has crept in)have a surveillance role with their GSMGs equipped landrovers and ground based electronic equipment, they do not have a active recce role within the airbase environment. Their wartime role does not allow them depart from this environment. 2Cav Regt has a part of it's role the active one of providing external recce for the RAAF air base environment.

Yours,
Jock in Sydney