Instructor Gunnery

From ARRSEpedia

An Instructor Gunnery (or IG) is a Gunnery Staff appointment. They are qualified via the (now non-existent) mechanism of the Gunnery Instructors Course (GIC) run at The Royal School of Artillery.

Once upon a time, a good grasp of the technical nature of the Royal Artillery's core business and capabilities was regarded as essential if one wanted to progress and 'do well' as an officer. These days, it is a very different story, and IGs have - over the last 15 years or so - been drawn from the bottom third of their peer group. Clearly, this has served to reinforce the self-fulfilling prophecy that 'Gunnery Staff = Crap' and the appointment has suffered an irreversible decline. No officer with any drive or ambition joins the Gunnery Staff these days.

For a while last year (2006) it seemed that the DRA had seized the day and was determined to do 'something' about it, and the rest of the officer corps looked on breathlessly as two (hapless) officers were selected dicked from their peer group to 'forge the way' (in the words of the then DRA) and make the role of the IG sexy and desirable again.

It remains to be seen whether there is actually any truth in this, but it is clear that the Gunnery Training Team has come on leaps and bounds.