In May 2016, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II attended the Royal Artillery Regiment’s 300−year celebration at their Larkhill Camp headquarters on the southern edge of Salisbury Plain, U.K. As the Captain General of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, Queen Elizabeth II joined the Regiment’s Chain of Command in the celebration of their tercentenary, Ubique 300. In 1832, the Regiment was given the motto “Ubique,” meaning everywhere, by King William IV in recognition for their service and participation in almost every major battle fought by U.K. forces.
The Regiment is commemorating three centuries since its inception in 1716, when Royal Warrant formed the first two permanent companies of the Royal Artillery during George I’s reign. The celebrations, held from May 21- 26, showcased how the Regiment trains, operates and fights in modern day warfare. As the provider of the Royal Artillery’s immersive joint fires training technology for the past two years, Cubic Defence UK (CDUK) demonstrated its 12-meter, 360-degree dome to the
Queen and accompanying guests.
Cubic’s domes already provide a core element of the special-to-arm training capability for the Regiment and an immersive training capability is one of the key requirements of the future Joint Fires Synthetic Trainer program of record, which is due to be delivered in 2019. Cubic’s Synthetic Wrap constructs a virtual environment in the dome to train fire support teams and forward observers for real-life combat scenarios. A trainee can be injected into the digital world through this training exercise, which also integrates live and virtual, friendly and opposing forces. Programmers can create simulations inside the dome by inputting various digital terrains, tracking where live combatants are located through GPS and viewing all the action from a virtual UAV. The Queen’s visit to Cubic’s dome thus gave CDUK a tremendous opportunity to demonstrate its full virtual training capabilities for warfighters.
Her Majesty also inspected the armored parade with an assortment of weaponry at the Royal Review. Led by the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery, the Queen watched a ride-and-drive past. Afterwards, Her Majesty paid tribute to the rich history of the Regiment in her speech and the ceremony concluded with a celebratory cascade of rifle fire called a “feu de joie.”