The 2nd/14th Light Horse Regiment (Queensland Mounted Infantry) is a regiment of the Australian Army and forms part of the Royal Australian Armoured Corps. The regiment is an Australian Light Horse unit, and has been widely romanticised and popularised in literature and poetry throughout the 20th Century. The unit sentimentally traces its lineage to 1860 and is the oldest Australian Regular Army unit through antecedent units the 2nd Moreton Light Horse (QMI) and the 14th West Moreton Light Horse (QMI). The regiment is assigned to 7th Brigade based in Brisbane and is equipped with the M1A1 Abrams tank and the ASLAV reconnaissance vehicle. History Formation The lineage of what is now known as the Queensland Mounted Infantry is quite convoluted and less linear than sentiment would suggest. Initially after the Russian scare of the Crimean War when every state in Australia carried a paranoid belief that they were the secret targets of the Russian invasion fleet, the response was to establish militia units to confront this menace. In Queensland, this culminated in a group of enthusiastic horsemen creating the Queensland Mounted Rifles in 1860 with two troops formed at Brisbane and Ipswich. This experiment lasted until 1863 when numbers dropped off and the Brisbane troop was disbanded. The Ipswich troop was renamed the Queensland Light Horse in 1864 and remained so until it too suffered declining number and was disbanded in 1866. The next round of enthusiasm followed the impetus of the Soudan War. New South Wales sent a contingent but Queensland's militia was so run down that nothing could be arranged to match the effort of the southern colony. Embarrassment and enthusiasm led to the formation in 1885 of the Queensland Mounted Infantry. The underlying operational principle was autonomous recruitment catchment areas located at Moreton Bay, Bundaberg, Gympie, Mackay and Townsville. The Moreton Bay Mounted Infantry comprised two troops, Brisbane and Beenleigh. By 1897 this distributed arrangement proved too cumbersome and expensive to maintain for a government that was almost bankrupt. All the disparate mounted units were re-designated as companies and amalgamated into one regiment called the Queensland Mounted Infantry (QMI). Boer War, 1899–1902 The Boer War (1899–1902) acted as the next stimulus to large scale recruitment. The QMI was reformed into four battalions which from thence forward, outlined the territorial divisions of the militia formation. From this the 1st Battalion, QMI, encompassing the Moreton Bay region was formed