Image via WikipediaTodays news does not bode well for the British Army, The Royal Navy and The Royal Airforce. A further reduction of just under 4000 personel-around 2900 of which will come from the Army is planned over the next three years. At the time of writing it hasn't been announced which sectors or skills of the three forces will be most affected.There are arguaments doing the rounds that say the modern day forms of warfare and methods of delivery of sytems has changed and will continue to change. No arguament there really. If we look at the way wars were fought in the early twentieth century and compare them with the way they are fought today, would be like comparing the days of wode and spears with the days of the Napoleonic wars, cannons and all. Having said that, Boots On The Ground are still needed. With the modern day methods of delivering warheads and assorted missiles from remote locations, we will still need men and women to enter the theatre of war to manage the results of of the outcomes of the battles and to manage the remaining forces, as well as to manage the rebuild and restructuring of wherever it is the battles took place.
We still need Men and Women to lead our soldiers, sailors and airmen, as well as we need men and women to be led!! I cannot help but think that if numbers continue to be reduced, there will be less and less fully trained people to be deployed when required to be deployed. Today we see many young lives being lost in Aghanistan-along with the comment that they were not fully trained when deployed. Is this perhaps because forces are stretched and new recruits are going through basic training, followed by trade training, but then being deployed with little training in how to perform in war.
If men and women are deployed hurriedly, and rotated frequently through postings and returned to theatres of war again, when does the training happen? Training and revalidation of training is so important, as we all know. What about "down" time between spells in theatres of war? Being on the ground in such situations is hard work. Not just physically, but mentally as well. I don't know which has the hardest impact on the mental health of a serviceperson these days. Is it the day after day exposure to the expected and the unexpected-or is it the moments when a couple of guys don't make it back and you are assigned to putting together all the belongings of the fallen, ready to be sent back home to next of kin?
For as long as we are prepared to expose our men and women to these situation, we should, as a nation, be prepared to support them with back-up numbers as well as equipment. I include in this the lack of Military Hospitals in the UK.
Mrs Thatcher returns with a fury, Mr Cameron seems to want to out do every thing Mrs Thatcher did and to add to it he is looking to get involved with Iran and then there is the Falkland that looks like is going to take of as well.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if he'll do the same and ask for Volunteer's, beside we have no Aircraft Carries and hardly any Navy.
The biggest issue is, as Army Carriers, going to be a thing of the past, as it looks like they are getting rid of people who are coming up to the 18 yrs mark so they can save on paying Pensions.
Like the case of the Serviceman who had 3 days to go to his 18 yrs but send him his Redundancy notice,
This is after publishing the £600 million used for advisers, it was also published that they were being paid £4000 a day for that advise, and it was also Published the funds for this was taken from the equipment Budget.
Then was the the £500 million pounds extra cost for Submarines because of delays, then the latest are the Planes costing £5 billion cannot land on Aircraft Carriers because of a fault in the landing hooks, yet it looks like no one is going to account for all this.
To top all these they have just aawarded thenselves huge Bonuses, and classed it has performance payment not bonuses yet no one as explained what that performances.
Let us not forget they are still recruiting
Ginger1
Thanks Ginger 1. You do have a point about the sudden need to recruit on a former occasion following forces reductions.
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