That's actually a very far reaching question.
I joined the artillery in 1965 as a reservist and went regular in 1969 . The period was one of massive downsizing. Around 1965 we lost dozens of reserve regiments by amalgamation and, in particular lost locating, medium and self propelled capabilities in the reserves. In 1969/70 we downsized the regular force artillery from 4,000 personnel to just over 1,000. We had four, four-battery regiments and two missile batteries. The missiles went, our air defence units went, our last locating unit went and appx half of the gun batteries went, not to mention that the establishment in each of the remaining batteries was reduced from what it was before.
It was what I called the "first dark ages". The problem isn't so much the guns themselves. Gun drill is relatively basic and can be taught to individuals relatively quickly. What gets really lost are some of the more esoteric skills. In the 1980s, when we decided to revive some locating and air defence capabilities, we had a very rough row to hoe because the people that had previously performed those functions had mostly (but luckily not completely) retired. It took years to put it back together in a modest way.
There are numerous skills that you cannot perfect when you have too few guns available. At it's lowest level is the skill to conduct reconnaissance and deployment of weapon systems that are in contact with and under the threat of near peer enemies (self propelled guns using distributed gun positions); at the far end is the massing of fires (which includes the skill and capability to deliver and supply vast amounts of ammunition) by way of artillery headquarters above the battery/regimental level. Air defence is currently weak and fundamental at best. We have no multiple rocket launcher capability which is also a necessity for massed fires.
The problem, however, is not limited to the artillery. While we have sufficient regular force brigades and a modest headquarters to form a division, we do not have many of the enablers needed by such a formation for it to deploy successfully in a near peer environment. Forget about the reserve brigades. Their structure makes them incapable of doing anything but providing a limited number of fill-in personnel at the lowest of combat and support skill levels. Neither do they have any of the most basic equipment needed to go to war.
The simple fact is that the weakness of our artillery at this time is simply a symptom of a total military force that is incapable of doing anything beyond the supply of one or two battalion sized battle groups for participation in moderate level of combat. We have no standing plans, nor the equipment, nor the skills that would allow us to ramp-up our forces into a viable combat formation even though, on paper, we have the number of people that should let us deploy six brigades in one or even two divisions.
We're in what I now call the "second dark ages".
:2c:
[cheers]
