Interoperabilty

Great experience interoperating with guns like these

The sole objective of interoperativity is to make systems and organisations work together. In artillery it entails streamling fire discipline language, systems and procedures, having close to standardised equipment particularly ammuntions, and sharing of resources.

Malaysian Artillery was firmly rooted into the British system from day one. Interoperability with NATO systems started around 1970s. We were actually half way into interoperability because, we had Italian guns, NATO standard ammunitions, British and American artililery equipment, and of course we spoke fairly good english, Malaysian way.

In the British concept, OPOs ordered the guns to fire, whilst in the American way, they requested for fire. There was a classic example in the later; an american OPO requested for immediate fire support and when it was finally approved the target was no longer there. Request for fire support is still the norm as with request for close air support.

My first experience with interoperabilty was when we had finished our YO course in Larkhill in 1965 we were seconded for a month with British Army on the Rhine (BAOR) artillery units serving NATO in Germany. I was seconded to 2 Field Regiment RA deployed at Dennis Camp in the Munsterlager sector, south of Hamburg, Germany.

Young officers in the Regiment largely suspected my standard of english. They think I would be off the mark and to be fair, there would always be some degree of racisism with the British in those days. The only way out of it was to whack back. Hard. We were having happy hour in the bar, when a British officer, stiff upper lips and all, called me a swine and I happily called him a hog. He challenged me if I knew what was the difference between a swine and a hog. I clarified that a swine is a beautiful bitch of a pig and a hog is an incorrigible castrated batchelor pig like him. That settled our argument to the delight of other officers present. He then respected my command of his english language and settled for truce by calling for drinks all round. From then onwards I fitted in. “Ein Beer biter” was the order of the day.

My other experience of interoperability was when I participated in Exercise Long Gun in Queensland, Australia. Omar Mohammed and Dato Hassan were with me. We were FOOs for the joint Commonwealth exercise. An Australian Div Arty comprising two field reigments and a medium regiment were supporting a UK Para Bde. The UK Para Bde flew directly from the UK and parashuted into the Shoalwater Bay area in the Capricorn Coast of Central Queensland. Shoalwater Bay has two seasons throughout the whole year. It was either hot or very hot. It was very hot, mostly plus of 38 degrees centigrade.

I remembered members of the Para Bde wore their winter Pakka jackets as it was winter in the UK and summer in Australia. It was definitely an oversight by the Paras. The three weeks exercise was a tremendous success. Dato Hassan had a Wallaby (small kangaroo) hopped on to his stomach whilst he was resting in the bush to our amusement. 

It was actually exciting and fun to operate along side with other artilleries in the world.

Allen Lai