The Army expects to complete the current phase of its Fifth Generation Land Force design work by the end of 2026, with further refinement and force testing continuing inside the wider Integrated Force Design process, according to an answer given in Parliament.
Ben Obese-Jecty, the Conservative member for Huntingdon, asked by when the work to define the Fifth Generation Land Force would be completed, following an answer given on 16 September.
Louise Sandher-Jones, the Minister for the Armed Forces, said: “The Army expects to complete the current phase of the 5th Generation Land Force design work by the end of 2026. Further refinement, consolidation and force testing will continue as part of Defence’s wider Integrated Force Design process. The 5th Generation Land Force remains the Army’s principal contribution to that work.”
In a separate answer, asked whether it would become policy to establish a mechanised infantry rifle company in the First Battalion the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, Luke Pollard said: “Decisions on future platform requirements at unit and sub-unit level are yet to be finalised. However, I can confirm that the 1st Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers has already received a Boxer Unit.”
The Fifth Generation Land Force is the Army’s description of what it intends to become, built around the recce strike concept of finding targets at range and killing them with long-range fires, with uncrewed systems and electronic warfare woven through the design instead of bolted on. It follows from the Strategic Defence Review’s conclusions about the twenty forty forty balance between crewed platforms, reusable uncrewed systems and single-use munitions.
Elsewhere the telegraph reports billions of pounds being removed from the army front line and boxer vehicles etc. Soon the only soldier left will be expected to use their own pushbike as a vehicle for war
Yep, and the standing order will be, will the last man out turn the lights off.
Endless chat, zero action and continuous decline in mass and capabilities across the board.
Surely they’ll be going electric?
So we had A2020, then A2020R, then Future Force 2030 ( or was it 2035, I lose track) where an entire “Corps” was discussed, now this new buzzword has been thought up.
All is well.
The problem is there are so many ongoing reorgs all the way back to Future Army Structures in the mid 2000s that not one reorg has ever been finished before the next wave of cuts altered the existing plan and a new one was hatched.
Under this smoke and mirrors, I’m still trying to track changes at sub unit level, as hidden from the public who look and still see a Battalion or Regiment, that unit contracts as Companies, Batteries and Squadrons are cut, amalgamated, disappear, or are put into “suspended animation” while politicians continue to waffle that all is well.
Future Soldier was published, Project Wavell wasn’t, only internally I believe, will this be?
On 1 RRF, you’d assume that the term Mechanized Infantry Company would be standard for a Boxer Company? Battalions usually had 3, plus FS Coy, plus HQ. All that is changing in various units as FS Coys assets merge with the Infantry Companies, Drones become dominant, and names change, which give the opportunity for cloak and mirror cuts in headcount, something that’s been going on since General Mike Jackson I believe.
Fire support elements have always been task orged with Rifle Coys. They are together as a Sp Coy for training and in-camp admin normally. Only every now and again will you see Sp Coy tasked as a sub-unit, normally as an ISTAR Coy. But OC Sp Coy is normally the principal planning officer in BGHQ. That element isn’t much of a change. 1 RRF are basically tasked with developing the TTPs with how you do all of these tasks from Boxer.
I’ve noted Bob that the FS / Sp Coys in 11 Bde Battalions seem to have gone, and their assets directly placed in the remaining Rifle Companies in LRS Battalions.
Is that something that might happen with other Battalion types too, so the assets are no longer task orged but directly under Company Command?
Latest I read is that 1 LANCS C Corruna is now “Drones and Mortars Company.”
Drones I get, in the L Recc Strike idea, but Mortars?
Won’t this just be seen as a way to reduce headcount and merge MG, Javelin, HMG, Mortar Platoons directly into the Rifle Companies as standard?
So first, not 100% sure because I’m not in the Bns anymore. However, we tried it with MGs and went back to a MG Pl.
And one thing about hat actually fits with recce strike concept is something we were experimenting with in 2015 when I was OC FSp. Dispersed assets, concentrated effect.
Basically, as long as you can control fire, it doesn’t matter in the Battlespace where it is. So you can disperse the mortars, the javelin dets, the MGs. The important bit is to concentrate their effect and to do that you need to observe the target and control the fire.
The best way to achieve that is to concentrate their effect training of those assets.
I suspect Mortars and Drones in a Platoon is actually how they see themselves doing that. So rather than an MFC forward, they can be with a drone operator look at feeds and deciding what effect they can have, either with the drone itself or with the mortar line depending on the target.
Thank you, makes sense.
Yet another army reorganisation, oh goodie.
I worry about this one. Sounds like we are going to rush into a drone-based field force,.with this artillery brigade aka Deep Recon Strike Bde, which sounds more sexy, as the jewel in the crown. So we are gearing up for an archers v archers type of warfare, where we shoot up enemy forces with missiles and drones, and protect ourselves with air defence systems, while the enemy does the same. Meanwhile, our heavy combat formations hang about waiting for an opportunity to motor into action.
There is a danger in going all drony, as the C-UAV weapons being developed rapidly in the West will likely diminish the current dominance of UAVs on the battlefield, though only if we field C-UAV systems in sufficient numbers…. which is not a given in the cash-strapped British Army.
If so, does it bring us back to heavy armoured infantry ruling the battlefield,? So many people say the tank era is over. Yet there is a mass of orders for new tanks across ENATO, Reinmetall alone has 7 years’ worth of orders. Nobody is abandoning tanks and heavier tracked AIFVs. But these will require much better protection in the drone era, whether an APS defensive system or simply bolt-on metal mesh protection, plus an ancillary C-UAV weapon and low-cost radar.
I fear that we are about to embark on another sweeping, knee-jerk reaction to the (perceived) changing nature of warfare, no doubt at considerable cost, which will then result in unavoidable cuts to the budget and yet more reductions in troop numbers. We have seen this scenario before: Gen Carter’s drive to switch from tracked AFVs to medium-weight wheeled Stryker-type units, following the US model, which the US has effectively retreated from. So we have this mixed tracks-and-wheels set-up which makes no operational sense.
Would far rather see the army making some sensible decisions to improve our fighting strength, including but not limited to, fielding UAVs and C-UAVs in sufficient numbers, than rushing off to produce some fanciful new fighting model based on what may well be a fleeting dominance of UAVs on the battlefield.
👍
I think it’s already well underway, in some formations more than others, like 11 Bde and Light Recc Strike.
Where are the formed recce strike assets going to practice, live fire the new long range fires concept on manoeuvres?
The problem with the Deep Strike concept is that it requires artillery. Lots of it. Something we don’t have very much of, let alone lots. We have lots of recce, but I suspect that is because we can’t afford real fighting vehicles so we put them in cheap light shit and attach a fancy name to them to make them look good.
Drones appear very effective in a pretty static battlefield. I would question their effectiveness in a fluid engagement. People point to The Ukraine but if I recall it wasn’t drones that initially stopped the Russians. It was tanks and in particular ATGM. Once the Ukranians blunted the Russian advance, that is when drones came into their own. Drones can be very effective and do have a use, but I think the Govt and the MOD are using them as a curtain to hide gaping capability gaps and no real plans to remediate them. Just look at what the MOD have been asked to do recently. 2 billion off the boxer program, almost 1 billion off the Single Living Accommodation update plan and almost 1 billion off the married quarters update plan. So great, we got 1.5 billion in “extra” spending but then was told to cut almost 4 billion. That my friends is a MASSIVE cut.
S. O. P for these Charlatans who talk a good game while giving with one hand and taking with the other, while the public are distracted by the noise coming out of their mouths.
I think it’s less than 1.5 billion too, new kit out to 2030 seems to be 500 million of actual “new” money.
Try buying Patria, GBAD Sky Sabre, Patria SHORAD, LMV, and all the rest with that.
Fitted for but not fitted with