The following paper outlines some thoughts as to how the British Army could be more readily constructed for the future without the need for any more dramatic changes.
For context there are some comments about how we appear to have arrived at this place.
This article was submitted to the UK Defence Journal by Geoffrey Roach. Please note that the opinion of the author may not necessarily reflect that of the UK Defence Journal.
Geoffrey Roach has a work background in features, publicity management and more recently digital marketing. Geoffrey advises that his interest the armed forces started with his Dad who served with Captain Johnny Walker on HMS Stork and then HMS Starling during the war, mostly in the Atlantic and the Arctic. His own own interests developed into defence and foreign affairs and he took that brief on joining the National Advisory Committee in the eighties. Geoffrey is currently a member of RUSI and SSAFA and in the process of taking up a position as leader of a policy forum advisory group.
The Governments main thrust, post Brexit, is to turn Britain into ‘Global Britain’ with eyes on trade in the Indo-Pacific. So we start with the fact that the Royal Navy will need to be provided with all that it needs to achieve an impressive presence, wherever it is deployed.
The army inevitably faces cuts so how might it respond. A look at a report prepared for the Cameron Government may help.
The report indicated that were twelve threats facing the United Kingdom Ranging from terrorism to nuclear attack. However only four mentioned how the army might be involved in conventional warfare.
They were a full scale conventional attack against the UK mainland; the UK getting drawn in to a war between two foreign states; insurgency or instability affecting a Commonwealth nation and finally an attack on a British protectorate.
The first threat is really more to do with an attack on NATO. The second can be read as another Afghanistan or Iraq. Would we want to go down that road again? The third brings to mind Operation Palliser in Sierra Leone and the forth the Falkland’s War.
Even five years ago the army, perhaps through no fault of its own, seemed confused and blinded by the need to try to do everything. A poor re-equipment schedule and falling recruitment only added to the problem.
So, how do we make the best of the army and give it a real role for the future? We start with the premise that we are an island nation and that we do not need to provide the same armed forces as our continental allies. We do not need to rebuild the army so that we can be seen to follow the United States into the likes of Iraq.
We build for rapid response and specific power projection. The army budget is finite and is likely to remain so once the restructuring has taken place.
The current arguments are ‘Armour first, Strike to the fore’, tracks or wheels, Ajax or Boxer? Chicken or egg. Where are we going? The facts are simple. An Armoured Brigade without a recce screening force is blind. A Strike Brigade without armour risks being destroyed by enemy armour and either brigade without FIRES support risks being overwhelmed.
The answer is simple.
If we want both types of brigade we can have them organised within an all regular 3rd UK Division. Pairing of regular and reserve forces is inefficient and can slow deployment to the extent that regular units may be forced to deploy alone. NO other major western army operates this way.
The starting point of a revised schedule should be the use of the Ajax variants necessary to form one or two traditional ARMOURED BRIGADES each with an armoured cavalry regiment with 32 Ajax; an armoured regiment with 36 Challenger or Leopard depending on cost; two armoured infantry battalions with 90 Warriors and integrated anti-tank units; two artillery batteries each with 12 AS90s and an anti-air battery with 24 Starstreak.
Form a wheeled Strike Brigade made up of Boxer variants.
Alterations to the current contract should not prove difficult at this early stage. The STRIKE BRIGADE to consist of a cavalry regiment with 32 Boxer IFV with remote turret and 30mm/40mm cannon; a regiment with 36 Boxer with 105mm gun and two battalion of infantry with 90 Boxer IFV and integrated anti-tank units.
A decision will need to be made on anti-air, perhaps a boxer with chain gun or integrating Starstreak into a Boxer hull. Both brigade types should work to achieve a rapid response capability for a battle group at least. This is particularly true of the Strike Brigade which should be looking at 30 days. Both would benefit from having a battle group forward deployed. Armour to Estonia? Strike to Oman?
Develop and improve the capabilities of the 16TH AIR ASSAULT BRIGADE. Based on the 2nd and 3rd battalions of the parachute regiment and currently a Royal Gurkha Rifles battalion. By adding another Gurkha battalion we could achieve two operational strike groups… each with a Lead Assault Force headquarters unit.
Pathfinder platoon and a lead company group, all on two days notice followed by the rest of the Parachute Battalion on four to five days and finally the Gurhkas after eight to ten days. Two batteries of 105mm light guns; two batteries of 24 Starstreak.
Each Strike Group supported by an AAC regiment with Apache and Lynx helicopters. All anti-air and anti-tank units and logistical elements would be a permanent part of the brigade.
Each brigade would have it’s own home base and training companies and be the link between the all regular 3rd Division and the Army Reserve providing additional manpower as necessary after deployment. Logistical and engineering support should wherever practical be attached permanently to its brigade allowing for the closest possible co operation.
A dedicated ARTILLERY BRIGADE to support another brigade or battle group or in its own right should the circumstances demand. Three artillery regiments each with three batteries of 16 Archer (?) 155mm howitzers and three regiments of depth fire- 16 GMLRS
The British Army will continue to roll out its Sky Sabre missile defence shield. The air defence of the UK against all aerial attack could be further enhanced by the acquisition of the Aster SAMP/T ABMDS
A new opportunity would be a regiment of land launched anti-ship missiles based in Scotland and/or the North of England, a game changer in tackling Russian naval activity.
In conclusion, may I thank all who take the time to read this paper. It is in no way definitive but does, I believe, offer a sensible and cost effective way forward.
Thanks Geoff nice article.
sounds interesting, what is the total manpower in this force ?
Interesting but struggling to visualize what you end up with and manning. Can we have some sort of summary table or graphic?
I like it and makes sense. Boxer MGS should have a 120mm gun for commonality with tanks, If Italians are able to put in Centauro II https://www.edrmagazine.eu/italian-army-orders-86-more-centauro-ii , Boxer should be able too.
Just drones are missing.
Perhaps the Amos mortar is a better solution for us. Double barrelled with direct fire capability
That implies the only direct fire anti tank capacity of the brigade are the anti tank missiles.
if We are serious about this set up every single vehicle should have tow on them, especially the boxers.
the Amos system gives options and is 120mm
every single IFV should have a cannon (CTA is selected) and at least 2 TOW with further units inside for dismounts
These divisions will need c. 4K vehicles all in and those vehicles need to be kitted out to make up for the lack of mass
precision fires is central to this
Totally agree with this comment, the system seems to have been overlooked. That may be because Mortars are seen as an Inf Wpn, whereas Amos could and should be fielded by the RA
I am certainly no expert on this but boxer with this and 4 units per company would be a big increase in capability, especially if the IFV have a CTA turret and TOW as std,
we just can’t afford to send out under armed boxers or Ajax with such a small army.
get this right and it’s a game changer, get it wrong and the army is not fit for purpose
All seems very sensible but rests on three key developments that quite a few have flagged as necessary 1) Ajax moves to the armoured brigades. 2) Boxer variants with greater firepower are procured for strike 3) Artillery is overhauled/augmented, including air defence. The problem with 1 is that the Ajax order is currently too large for them to just provide armoured recon for those (presumably two) brigades. Perhaps the order can be reconfigured for them to at least partially replace Warrior. The problem with 2) and 3) is money! Although I noticed Nicholas Drummond is tweeting positively hinting at something good looming on the artillery front….
I just read his posts, gives you some hope that there might actually be some joined up thinking going on! fingers crossed.
I think this looks like a logical structure. A few questions:
* Even with 2 armoured brigades, we will deploy just 2×36 MBTs. Is this really powerful enough?
*What would we do with the remainder of the Ajax order of 589 in all variants if we use only 2×32 in the armoured brigades and make Strike all wheeled?
*Instead of developing an artillery Boxer, could we not look again at the M777 portee , a British design on a British vehicle?
*Should not the RN be the priority customer for a heavy anti ship missile?
The Ajax order replaces the CVRT Scimitar, Sultan, Samaritan, Samson, Spartan family of vehicles. Originally purchased for 3 Armoured Recc regiments, 1 per Armoured Brigade.
Added to this the Armoured Regiments, Armoured Infantry battalions and some other units all use CVRT variants, so the 589 are more widely spread. Armoured Infantry battalions for example have a platoon of Scimitar.
Armoured Regiments are of the Type 56 type and have been for years, even when we had 5 regiments worth in 5 brigades pre 2010 SDSR.
Agreed: the original plan from@2010 was to have a more or less one for one replacement of all cvrt variants(except the Stormer derivative). It was later that the idea of using Ajax in Strike was mooted.
I have never understood the thinking behind the Ajax contract,given the simultaneous aim to upgrade Warrior. Nor do I understand why we chose such a large platform( chassis length and width similar to Challenger) to replace something so much lighter and more agile.
It’s hard to imagine how a worse series of decisions about afvs could be made, although the US army is giving it a go!
Hi Peter, the size of the Ajax hull is a direct result of MOD survivability requirements and selection of a powerful (large) powertrain.
interesting choice. but we will need the man power to operate it. however as Geoff said in the article we have a failing recruitment programme. i wonder why young people aren’t interested in the armed forces. do we need to spread propaganda? impose and extreme right wing state like the NAZIs without the murdering of Jews and ethnic types?
Thankyou a good read , it is important that the army doesn’t become the Cinderella of the armed forces. I like the focus of the article
Go look at the Oerlikon Skyranger. It is based on Boxer, but has a 35mm turret with EO & Radar. Shown shooting down UAV. The Russians believe in 3 layer air defence & they are probably on to something. So top layer SAMP-T (or similar), middle layer SkySabre/CAMM & bottom layer 35mm Skyranger, would be my choice.
We need to keep an eye on various US projects. The medium tank, the Bradley replacement, long range precision fires & the early steps in a M1 tank replacement. I would buy some 2nd hand, ex USMC 155mm M777 if they are going cheap.
Did I read correctly? Cuts to the Army? It was cut to the bone and beyond by the incompetent Cameron government. The result is an army that cannot even meet it recruitment goals for 82,000, so it has to settle for 80,000. I cannot tell what the future British Army will look like or what it’s supposed to accomplish. Defend East Anglia?
I do think we can generate 7 fully integrated divisions of 14,664 personnel. And agree with the writer that we need to do it our way
I believe we should have 3 strike, 3 armoured and 1 commando divisions in the permanent force each capable of delivering 2400 dismounts into the field
current thinking is that divisions and corps are too ineffective and certainly the British army has the organisation of a force 10 times its actual size and simply isn’t fit for purpose
1. Smaller force means we go all mechanised
2 those mechanised assets must have far more offensive capability than their peers
3 commanders become istar specialists who occupy the information management sphere leveraging large data sets to make decisions
4 the airforce needs to be fully integrated with and under the command of these divisions (3.6k raf per division)
With fewer soldiers the need to have better more lethal equipment is absolutely essential
‘We go all mechanised’.. ‘Bout time, but what about the horses?
Got to keep them for the tourists and the grand national
My money is on Victoria’s cross!!!
Is your maths right? 7 divisions each of 14,664 is a total of over 102,000 – and the army is slated to reduce from 82 000 to about 70,000.
We had 3 armoured divs in Germany at the height of the Cold War – we don’t need that amount today.
Why a full Cdo Div? – we have trouble finding the manpower for a commando bde at present.
None of your piece points to a smaller army or cdo force – it dramatically expands it.
Hi Graham sorry should have said 3.6k are RAF so 11k is the actual army component.
you need 3 to generate 1 something the army has not been that successful at doing in my opinion.
enlarged Cmdo as I think they need more people to do the northern flank and theatre entry, doesn’t necessarily mean marines, but a Cmdo force
ultimately 82k is the bare minimum in my opinion if the govt wishes to remain a credible force, I just don’t see how anything less can work and be sustainable, unless of course we remove a capability.
personally I don’t see the need for us to have heavy armour as I favour long range strike instead, but that’s another thing.
we need more people on the front line, not less – when will our politicians work that out
As an organisation, the army needs total restructure. My belief is that, just ignore the strike abortion at the moment, that the Armoured formations need to be training and based around the Battlegroup. No more separate large organisations. Yes you can be a member of a certain Infantry Bn, an Arty Regt, Tank Regt, loggies etc but you should be affiliated to a certain BG, give it a BG name, and then you spend 5 years or so being independantly posted, say at 2 x Coy, 1 x Sqn, 1x Bty to this specific BG. More realistic way of training, deploying and fighting. Obviously the same goes to all the enablers. Armoured warfare is all about smaller organisations moving in its own sphere, to achieve the tactical aim. Would be easier to drop a BG into a NATO allies formation as well. Just my 2 penneth worth on the subject. THEN sort out the bloody strike cluster. Cheers.
Couldn’t agree more
Reinforced regiments of 1800 personnel
600 inf
600 combat support
600 logistics
Key here is infantry really is infantry and logistics is drivers, gunners, QM and REME
The beauty of this is that the logistics battalion can be heavy armour, strike or a combination of the 2
Add in 600 air support and that’s your standard regiment
Division wise. A fires regiment and a command regiment bring it all together
Each division is smaller but standalone (what happens when half the army is wiped out) can self sustain. Do this right and each regiment will want to compete to be the best. Something I think we have moved away from too much
Being an Island nation has never been less of an advantage than today. Those seas can be crossed very easily, especially with the RN at a very low nadir & both other services at very low strength. It’s not WW2 any more. Helicopters, tilt-wilngs, fast transports, hovercraft etc rapidly deliver invading forces.
Chain guns for AA are ridiculous as they provide far too low rate of fire to cope with anything more than slow helicopters.
We need always to be prepared to intervene for freedom & democracy across the world, or else it’s a short wait until ruthless repression is on our doorstep. Decades of slashing our defences has left us very vulnerable & brittle.
Nice one Geoffrey, very good piece.
I don’t know where to start! So much to absorb and consider.
Ajax back to Armoured Brigades. Absolutely. A must.
“organised within an all regular 3rd UK Division.”
As far as I’m aware 3 (UK) Division is almost all regular save some Reserve Infantry battalions that have been paired with their regular Warrior Armoured Infantry counterparts, a recent army reorganisation. Other Reserve elements are in 101 Logistic Brigade, again that brigade has mostly regular elements. Almost all the army’s combat power is already concentrated in the Division.
It is in 1 (UK ) Division that the rest of the reserve infantry battalions are found and where brigades are a mix of regular and reserve, the main thrust of your comment on 3 Div I think.
“Develop and improve the capabilities of the 16TH AIR ASSAULT BRIGADE”
Yes, but even adding a 4th battalion that brigades main issues are the trimming of the enablers from the CS & CSS arms supporting the paras.
The extra Gurkha battalion could indeed be found by withdrawing Britain’s far east theatre reserve, the Brunei based battalion. If politics requires that to be maintained maybe use another LI battalion in air landing role?
“Each Strike Group supported by an AAC regiment with Apache and Lynx helicopters.”
Yes but would require a complete reorganisation of the AAC as currently there is but one Lynx Regiment ( 1 AAC which is ARF ) and 2 Regiments of Apache, already much reduced, one of which supports SF/16AA/Maritime and the other 3 Division.
“All anti-air and anti-tank units and logistical elements would be a permanent part of the brigade.”
The logistical elements already are, anti air would need reinforcing as currently a single battery ( 12 ( Minden ) Battery on Starstreak LML supports 16AA so not enough for the 2 Strike Groups proposed.
“Each brigade would have it’s own home base and training companies and be the link between the all regular 3rd Division and the Army Reserve providing additional manpower as necessary after deployment. Logistical and engineering support should wherever practical be attached permanently to its brigade allowing for the closest possible co operation.”
This is interesting. Up to 2010 SDSR the logistical, engineering, artillery, REME units of the brigades were all part of the brigade they supported. SDSR2010 removed them, administratively at least from the brigades, into Close Support Groups as part of Theatre Troops/ForceTroops/6 DIv, or whatever they call it this week!. They should indeed be a part of the brigade they are meant to support and removing them made no sense.
The suggestion of dedicated training companies reminded me of the set up of the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in WW2, as their Divisions also had a dedicated training/replacement battalion.
“A dedicated ARTILLERY BRIGADE to support another brigade or battle group or in its own right should the circumstances demand. Three artillery regiments each with three batteries of 16 Archer (?) 155mm howitzers and three regiments of depth fire- 16 GMLRS”
Is that in addition to the current close support artillery regiments on AS90 now? We have 3, reducing to 2. So would need an expansion of the RA, which I support. Again with GMLRS, we have but 1 Regiment, plus 101RA (R)
Dedicated home based SAM and ASM units, very interesting indeed. Manned by the army or by the RAF / RN?
Lots to discuss!
Thanks for the piece Geoffrey.
Hi Daniele,
Thank you for your kind comments.
Your quite right. The brigades are based on the old T 56…if it works…I still don’t understand, to use a technical term, why they are still faffing about with tracks and wheels so Ajax..yes..back to armour. I know this leaves us with a surplus but I’m sure there are some hull conversions that could be made.
I wanted an all regular force to clear the potential slow down in deployment. I know the U.S. has done some work on this and they reckon mixing in the National Guard can add up to twenty per cent to the time needed to deploy.
CS and CCS is a problem and not just with 16th AAB. 1st UK has the bulk of our infantry and once the stripping out is done precious little CS and CCS left.
To be honest ,the Gurkhas I would recruit direct, assuming Brunei continues to be paid for, especially if home recruiting doesn’t improve.
Apache..this is down to me and a slip of the mouse. I should have said squadron ( eight aircraft ) not regiment. This said we still need more.
I knew something about pre 2010 but not about the Wehrmacht. Interesting. To ma the idea of having a dedicated training company with links to replacement reserves just made sense.
Yes, the Artillery Brigade is in addition to the 105mm and the AS90’s, although the latter could be formed up now, being replaced later as planned. GMLRS would be tight but a small top up purchase? We are going to need heavy FIRES .
Now I get to dream time! UK based SAM and ASM units. I would like to see them manned by the army but with RN/RAF expertise (?) initially. It may be irrelevant but I thought it might bring some kudos to the army as a whole..
Hope that covers it…stay safe.
Thanks Geoffrey, for your thoughts behind the article.
The SAM units. If they are UK based could they be manned by reservists? The RAF Regiment did have SAM expertise with several squadrons worth of Rapier FSC and going back further to the Cold War others guarding USAF bases, Lossimouth, and Leuchars, as well as Bloodhound. All of this I know you know, just wondering if they have been out of it long enough for skills to have faded?
As for land based ASMs. Has the UK ever fielded any? Uncertain. Certainly not in the later Cold War which I’m more familiar with.
Of the two a SAM system seems the most logical, as I see the greatest naval threat coming from submarines, missiles, and Russian naval aviation.
Wasn’t there a land based Exocet battery in Gibraltar at one time? Was it manned by Army or RN?
No idea John. If so, I’m very interested in learning about that as it’s passed me by.
Hi John,
Simple answer is yes there was.
There is a realy great write up of the history of Gibraltar on Wikipedia. One of the final elements of fortification installed, in October 1985, was a single MM38 battery with associated Type 1006 Radar. It was decommisioned in 1997.
Out of interest the last 9.2inch artillery batteries on Gibraltar were only decommisioned in 1976!
Cheers CR
Hi Daniele,
The answer,helpfully, is I don’t know. I think I know what your getting at but given the SAM units need to be on permanent standby….? Because there in the UK maybe it would be O K. Yes..an ABMDS needs to be the priority.I can’t recall there ever being any British SSM’s. Nearest equivalent is probably the naval guns on the east coast in the war!
Here is where your reserves idea could come in,trained in the peace and activated in time of war?
Yes, good point. Maybe for SAM role reserves not so good.
How about burying a couple of 8-cell Sylver Vladimir in every major army, RN and RAF base throughout the country, with control of them being centrally managed.
for anti-ship, use a truck launcher version of the naval strike missile or whatever interim anti ship missile the RN chooses. These could be used for home defence or deployments eg falklands or South China Sea or gulf.
Bloody hell. How did VLS get altered to Vladimir
excellent article ??
One thing is for sure I rather suspect recruitment won’t be an issue for too much longer. When there are less job opportunities as inevitable once the dust settles from all the covid fallout the armed forces will be one of the few employers always looking to recruit.
Gurkha recruitment could be increased fairly rapidly if the desire was there. Never a shortage of these amazing fine fellows wanting to take HM’s shilling .??
???????
That and the nhs, we need legions of vaccinators, buckets of testers and tracers ….and as for our acute respiratory beds……let’s just say respiratory wards and a shit ton of staff to run them are going to be de rigueur….no more running a health system with less acute beds, dr and nurse per 1000 population than anyone else in the west ( or giving public health to councils who ran the whole thing down to a Staff of about 3 PH consultants and specialists)
At the moment we have mainly packed up the day job to do all this…. but the day jobs are still there piling up and covid ent ever going away…..so come and get your jobs here ( even before covid we had about 20 thousand vacancies).
Although I admit our uniforms are a bit shit compared to every else’s ( all our badges, tunics and epaulets got binned for being to expensive or “ an infection control risk” ( which was really just code for to expensive).
A mate in naval recruitment was saying that numbers are up, both re-entries and new faces. Its a pity that it takes a crisis to push the numbers up that are interested rather than it being the norm. I’ve banged on about it before but that’s something the forces should be looking to.
With Army numbers and available finacial resources this article makes sense. As a starting point it could be built on, for example dedicated air lift and naval resources to transport these Brigades. I have often argued on this and some other sites that Albion Bulwark and yes Ocean needs replaced with three LHDs each with a embarked Strike or Armoured Battlegroup. The Royal Marines should revert to what they are really good at small teams at a max company deployments for this a Crossover type ship would be useful. By doing that the Army would have three battlegroups for world wide deployment by sea. These units could be seen as the Army equivlant of the USMC, whereas the RM/SBS could be used as the US SEALs. RAF transport aircraft numbers would need to be increased to air lift a Brigade. So with some investment into support and logistics it should be possible to deploy with 24 hrs notice.
Sounds good to me Geoff ,hope there don’t cut the Army for me all three services need more man power and equipment like we did in the 80s.Yes that will never happen and people will laugh but hey are we not in a cold war 2 ?
The Army only has itself to blame for the current mess. A fanatical attachment to preserving cap-badges even if it means a hideously convoluted structure and under-strength units, coupled with an inability to stick with decisions and accept 90% solutions.
At the very least i’d look to do the following….
The above wouldn’t solve all of the problems – but it would be a start!
Thanks for your responses and support .Iv’e been jammed up all day so I’ll get back to you with some answers tomorrow…as best as I can.
Maybe I understand this wrong, but it only give total of 12 infantry battalions? Will infantry go back to 4 rifle companies? And each brigade seems weak, low numbers of tanks, artillery and infantry. If UK is only planning to have active 5 brigades then they must be as strong a possible, maybe 6,000 people each, minimum 4 infantry, much much more artillery, use all current tanks, boxer with only heavy mg is a waste. I don’t understand who this format is meant to fight? Infantry number too low for Iraq and Afghanistan situation, everything to low for Russia situation
Morning all. I’ll try to cover the questions you have raised…hopefully you’ll find the replies helpful.
Ian/DRS I don’t have anything like a graph but I have used British Army establishment figures so a brigade as formatted would have a strength of around 3800 to 4000. You probably noticed that I have divided all brigades into two battle groups and these can be divided again into multi arms task groups.
Alex Agreed. The 105mm is a current Boxer option but I’m sure they could work a 120mm into the equation. Drones are mentioned briefly but only in a development sense. Good bit of work on integration to do there yet.
Pacman27 Amos is a perfectly good addition and the tow extremely useful
Steve P I take your point about Ajax but had the idea that they could reconfigure as HVM or mortar carriers. Money is always the problem as you say but .the brigade ideas are simpler than those being proposed and given that a good bit of the army’s equipment has to be replaced anyway hopefully…..
Peter S MBT’s This element is based on the UK not trying to do everything but being able to deploy a supporting force if the need arises. It can also be seen as political in that our allies believe we should contribute to the defence of Western Europe. AJAX….see above. ARCHER M777. certainly an option but for the brigades I was trying to stay with vehicle type .I had the M777 in mind for the Artillery Brigade that comes towards the end of the paper. ASM system..Yes RN should have priority but this article is about how the army could take on news roles in the future.
That’s it for now! Back later.
Thanks for this. I think your structure seems sound and logical. But the numbers do expose starkly how small the army is.
Aside from the usual shambles of equipment programmes, the biggest failure in recent years has been to deliver the plan for greater use of reserves. The aim was to match the US approach but we never got close. To be able to respond to the range of crises your note lists, we need forces that are readily expandable.
Given budgetary constraints, effective use of reserves may be the only way for us to deploy meaningful landpower.
We should also move on from the L118 Light Gun and use a 120 Heavy Mortar carrier as part of the Strike Brigade so that they are more mobile and engage the enemy and move on… a Boxer or Ajax variant
The 120mm mortar also allows for a more rapid delivery of munitions (up to 12 rounds per minute per barrel)
And we would have the Ammunition commonality with NATO allies
Hello…some more answers…
John H Skyranger would be a good option and your layered anti-air system would be extremely sound. Incidentally, I said Chain gun in the article which was a mistake. I should have said Rotary.
David F Yes the army is in the frame. The article you have just read was part of a paper considered by the ISDR team I have tried, with the exception of my wish list at the end to make the proposals fairly budget neutral.
Airborne Couldn’t agree with you more. That’s why I have gone for smaller brigades that can be sub divided across all disciplines. Small, expert ,fighting units with their own logistic outfits with a pride in their Battle Group. Bit like the Paras!
Frank62 The Island Nation comment was really more to do with the navy becoming the lead service in the Global Britain ambitions.Having said that…at home we are almost defenceless. Deployment of SAMP/T and long range anti ship / anti surface missiles would change the situation dramatically.
The Artist I hope your right .We can run a very efficient army but we need a good cadre of ever better regulars to do it. I had the pleasure of working with the Gurkha’s some years ago and they really are a fine bunch of honourable men with a bit of a wicked sense of fun.
Ron You use the word dedicated which is bang on. As I said to Airborne all needs to integrated including transport. You’ll have noticed I mentioned forward basing. I did wonder whether it wound be practical to have something like a Strike Brigade task force ie. half a battle group ship borne but I’m not sure.
Andrew It is getting a bit frosty around here! Yes Cold War 2 is arriving fast. and you know the only way to beat it. Whatever flag they fly we have to stand up as we did in the 1980’s
Challenger I hope you don’t think I ‘m rude in not replying in detail because I agree with every word you say. I concentrated on 3rd UK when I was trying to get the submission in but a look at 1st UK would be interesting. I think the 6th is probably beyond me.
Ulya Actually it’s four brigades with ten battalions of infantry in the 3rd Division which is about the same as current proposals…two armoured, one Strike , an evaluation unit and 16th Air Assault with…twelve battalions. I wanted to keep change to a minimum so I envisage the battalion strength remaining the same at three rifle companies and a manoeuvre support company.The Strike Brigade here is more powerful than what is proposed with more hitting power as is 16 AAB. reading the section on the Cameron Government report will underline the background to this paper.
I see Lockhead UK have an interesting new concept as part of any potential strike brigade
Lockheed Martin UK unwraps future anti-armour concept (army-technology.com)
And I like the idea
This article has been really effective in eliciting a lot of interesting contributions, although most of them,like mine plunge into detailed preferences. Thinking more broadly, given the dire financial situation we, along with most other Western countries are in, are any of the otherwise sensible suggestions really feasible? Unless governments are willing to cut back in other areas, will there ever be the resources to have worldwide capabilities like we had in the recent past? Added to the economic problems, the cost inflation of military equipment continues to run way ahead of general inflation, so numbers get ever smaller. Even the USAs huge budget is under strain, with an ageing aircraft inventory and aircraft and ships in a poor state of repair. They, like the UK, are operating a lot of old army equipment they will struggle to replace.
Should we therefore be looking at a more radical approach, concentrating on our own direct security and committing less to potential expeditionary warfare?
If we defined the defence objectives more narrowly, might we be able to fund them properly for once?
I know this runs counter to our glorious leaders global Britain ambition but much of that is f!annel. If we look at what Italy, with a budget about half of ours can achieve, imagine what UK could have with a similar approach.
Hi peter
I understand your concerns but I think, with the exception of my dream ticket ideas of a ASM ans a SSM system, all other equipment either exists or are orders or requirements that can be changed. The overall battle order is actually smaller than what is currently proposed but each battle group is better equipped and designed to be deployed more quickly.
I think Global Britain has to work. Whatever you might think about leaving the E.U. we’ve done it so new trade is going to be in the Indo-Pacific, and that means us being seen to be there. The navy and air force could both do with some additional equipment. eg Sylver for the T45’s , more F35’s , additional Poseidon,ideally. but there is nothing huge that isn’t in the pipeline somewhere.
My comment was in part prompted by your mention of land based AShM. If China is causing the USN serious concern by deploying them, couldn’t we benefit from the same approach? And couldn’t we deal more cost effectively with Russian air intrusions by deploying long range land based AAM?
I have listened for years to arguments that trade requires a military presence and never accepted them. Japan, Germany, South Korea have built more successful economies and have largely avoided all overseas military involvement and their costs.
I am absolutely not in favour of cutting defence, quite the opposite. But re-establishing a global presence, 50 years after we rightly withdrew from East of Suez, strikes me as nonsense. To do so when the RAF has just @150 combat aircraft and the army is a depleted shambles is not just an error but deeply irresponsible.
Britain has not had a high end SAM since Bloodhound fell apart from old age. We should have bought at least one battery of Patriot after 1991, or THAAD circa 2000-10, or SAMP-T, but we did not. Any attack by Russia would start with a blizzard of cruise & ballistic conventional missiles on key targets. We have no current means of stopping most of them. So yes, a high end SAM or a layered system, would be on my wishlist. Air policing needs manned fighters too, in order to have a look & escort away. With SAMs you just have a shoot/no shoot binary choice. Not good if you are trying to avoid starting a war. IF UK adopts Norway’s NSM/JSM for T31, then whynot buy a couple of coastal batteries added to the USMC order for economies of scale?
Chain guns?, 105 light guns?, 105’s on Boxers (hopefully they’d never encounter any MBT other than a Challenger 2 or 3!) As90’s? I thought this was about the future. God help us if we still aspire to be the most under gunned out there…
I read Geoffrey’s comment that the army inevitably faces cuts with disbelief, knowing that the army is the smallest it has been since the Napoleonic wars. It is also pertinent to mention that it was reduced to and set at 120,000 to be the right size post-Cold War in Options for Change, yet was then reduced to 102,000 then 95,000 then 82,500 over the next 25 years with no underpinning logic. I read today that Ben Wallace is considering a reduction to 72,500 over the next few years.
An army of such a small size will be mocked by the US and will be very pushed to deploy a warfighting Division for a one-shot operation or a strong brigade repeatedly for an enduring operation.
Role specialisation might have to happen, ie for the army to drop 1 or 2 capabilities.
The 2015 SDR planned for overseas deployable ground forces up from 30000 to 50000. An army not lower than 82000 with 35000 reserves was envisaged. Given the failure to achieve the plan for reserves,a cut in regulars means an even bigger overall reduction.
I don’t see how such smaller numbers are compatible with the 50k deployable force ambition. Maybe that is going too but given daft Boris’s global Britain message, that would seem unlikely.
With unemployment especially amongst young people sure to rise, now is the time to raise numbers and make good the damage of years of cuts. Pay for it by further reducing our absurd foreign aid budget.
Moving forwards without Watchkeeper according the Sunday Telegraph today. Expected to be scrapped in the next defence review. The project has been a shambles from the beginning, so probably correct.
The biggest risk with our assumed adversary may well be inadvertent escalation. By making our military so ‘agile’ that we will soon be able to fit our entire ‘expeditionary’ capability in a couple of C17s we are already ahead of the game. It is difficult to dangerously escalate a situation once you are no longer credible.
Really like the concept of Area Denial Missiles in Scotland – perhaps a HiMaRs unit. Believe there is an opportunity to add a 120mm turret to ASCOD rather than persisting with 105mm. Rest is good. May wish to ponder logistics of moving these Units rapidly.
Only problem with this plan is. It was drawn up for Cameron and he walked away 5 years ago. This plan would never get approved Army still trying to do to much.
What should the army’s future structure be