Gurkha soldiers are set to take artillery roles in the British Army for the first time, in a dedicated unit created amid the military recruitment crisis.
The King’s Gurkha Artillery (KGA) will consist of 400 of the currently around 4,000 Nepalese personnel that make up the Brigade of Gurkhas.
It will see the soldiers – recruited from Nepal into the British Army for the last 200 years – take up artillery positions for the very first time.
It is understood new recruits will account for a third of the KGA, while the rest will come from existing Gurkha units, the Telegraph reports.
The plans will help redress the some 700-soldier shortage in the Royal Regiment of Artillery, which the KGA will operate in.
There is speculation the role of Gurkhas – of various trades and mostly infantry – is being expanded in case troops need to be sent to Ukraine for Sir Keir Starmer’s ‘coalition of the willing’.
It comes amid widespread retention and recruitment issues in the military, which have seen defence secretary John Healey change thresholds for entry – including by allowing cancer survivor recruits for the first time.
The first KGA recruits will undergo the first stage of training in November before heading to the Royal Artillery’s home at Larkhill Garrison in Wiltshire for trade-specific training.
KGA soldiers will, over the next four years, be trained on equipment like the Archer and Light Gun artillery systems – replacements for the AS90s given to Ukraine.
In future, they will be trained to operate the remote-controlled Howitzer 155 artillery system.
It follows the PM’s pledge earlier this year to put boots on the ground in Ukraine to protect the sanctity of any peace deal the country agrees with Russia.
But a defence source has insisted KGA soldiers would not be sent to Ukraine as part of this mission.
The Ministry of Defence said the new Gurkha unit would be key to British artillery operations – and provides opportunities and development in a fitting recognition of their years of service to the UK.
Veterans minister Alistair Carns said the Brigade of the Gurkhas ‘has rightly earned a reputation as being amongst the finest soldiers in the world’.
The KGA would, he said, recognise their ‘oustanding contribution’ and ‘years of dedicated service’.
He added: ‘Our government is already delivering for defence through our Plan for Change, and this latest development will support retention efforts amongst Gurkhas while protecting and defending UK interests at home and abroad.’
Gurkhas have served in the British Army since the two-year Anglo-Nepalese War ended in 1816, which saw the British East India Company fight the city state of Gorkha in what is now western Nepal.
With the victorious British impressed by Gurkha fighters, the peace treaty agreed Nepalese personnel could volunteer for service with the Company if they wished.
Having since served in World War One, the Falklands, Afghanistan and Iraq, the Brigade of Gurkhas has built ‘a reputation of being amongst the finest and most feared soldiers in the world’.