The Ministry of Defence has confirmed it is working with industry to improve the ability to mobilise logistics personnel during times of crisis, following a parliamentary question on workforce preparedness.
In a written response, Defence Minister Luke Pollard said the department had recently formalised cooperation with parts of the logistics sector as part of wider defence resilience planning.
The question, submitted by independent MP James McMurdock, asked what discussions had taken place with representatives of the logistics industry on enabling workforce mobilisation.
Responding on behalf of the department, Pollard said the work aligned with ongoing defence reform efforts. “Supporting the Strategic Defence Review and Defence Industrial Strategy’s intent of enhancing surge capacity and resilience through industry collaboration, the Ministry of Defence has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with nine companies within the logistic workforce sector,” he said.
He added that the agreement was intended to improve responsiveness in extreme circumstances. “The MoU explores ways of enabling rapid logistic workforce mobilisation within the Strategic Base, at times of national crisis.”
All this used to be routine and well drilled and expected. Now due to our poor foresight across the board in NATO over the last 20 years of “peace dividend” we are now re-learning these from scratch once more. Wonder how many ships we have available for STUFT and rail platforms and skilled railways and logistic people. I am aware there is a reserve railway Sqn, but over the next 24-36 months, there will need to be a full economic effort at preparing for probable future conflict in Europe across every aspect of industry. The concerns we have are the few “super bases” we have for our main platforms, certainly withing the RAF and RN. And the 80s cold war skills and drills of dispersing prior to war are now being dusted off over the last couple of years. Industry and production may need to be doing the same dispersing production and skilled workforces.
A very interesting read is the procurement market engagement around the point replacement programme.. these are some serious ships they are talking about not just some ocean going RORO.. will proper ship to shore logistic capability via Mexeflote, ramps all around, crane, enhanced survivability, the ability to be fitted with self defence weapon systems and even an ice hardened hull for high north operations ( they are artic to Antarctica deployable)… all in all very very different from the points..
They are also exploring different operating models.. from civilian owned and operated to government owned and operated and everything in between….