In the course of my research for the UK Military Bridging series I have used British Pathe quite a bit, it is a fantastic resource for researching almost any subject and not only for UK subjects. One of my favourite clips is one on the Royal Army Service Corps, the forerunner of today’s Royal Logistic Corps. Click here for an [...]
The Strategic Defence and Security Review framed the future of the British Army in terms of the Multi Role Brigade. This had been signalled from as long ago as 2008 and subsequently featured as part of the Future Army Structure and Future Army Structure (Next Steps) initiatives. This original thinking envisaged 8 identical Brigades and 3 deployable Divisional HQ’s, each [...]
Throughout the Future Of series of posts I have put forward the basic premise that in order to deliver greater security the UK needs to have a smaller but highly effective core fighting force coupled with a much greater emphasis on building local security capabilities, mentoring, defence diplomacy and joining the instruments of development aid, military capability, industry & commerce, [...]
If we cast our gaze back to the Future Family of Light Armoured Vehicles (FFLAV) study that ultimately spawned TRACER and MRAV it is as relevant today as it was then. It came to the conclusion that what was needed was a three tier vehicle fleet As per the previous post, a sensible solution is to make do with what [...]
Although they have been in Afghanistan for some time, 70 Warriors have received a range of modifications called Theatre Entry Standard (Herrick) or TES(H). The total upgrade package has cost £30m and obtained under an Urgen Operational Requirement. BAE Systems has previously developed and produced over 70 UOR (Urgent Operational Requirement) modifications for Warrior to prepare them for operations in [...]
In the previous post I looked at a few issues that might influence equipment and structure decisions. Do we employ stealth or fight for information, have organic or non organic reconnaissance units and what is the relative importance of secondary roles that reconnaissance units tend to get used for. If the answer to the first question is to use stealth [...]
When it comes to reconnaissance there are many issues to look at, first of course is what does it mean, then, do we fight for information or do we sneak around looking for it, how is technology likely to impact the role, what about the secondary non reconnaissance roles that we have traditionally used the existing equipment for and that [...]
A guest post from Jed. The term “medium armour’ is banded around in connection with the SDSR post 2020 force structure, but what exactly does that term mean in this context ? The Army has been ‘experimenting’ with medium armoured formations on paper, and in exercises at BATUS in Canada for some years, in the form of mixed formations [...]
People have been predicting the demise of the tank since the first ones crashed through the barbed wire in the Battle of Somme in 1916. Since then they have shown remarkable resilience with the last major tank battle that involved UK forces less than a decade ago in 2003, other conflicts elsewhere has shown the continued utility of the main [...]
According to a few outlets the MoD has awarded a production contract to FN Herstal for a quantity of 176, 7,62m MINIMI light machine guns. This is a the culmination of a study that started in 2009, looking at ways of reducing the load on dismounted infantry. The aim was to find something that had the punch of the GPMG [...]
It would be the easiest thing in the world to write a post that demanded more, more people, more money and more equipment but as painful as shrinkage is, it is simply unavoidable. Having watched a medal ceremony on the TV tonight it brought home how the Army, like the other services, are not really about what calibre rifle, how [...]
You would have had to be as reclusive as Gadaffi this week not to have noticed the Army making its play for future budgets. Widely predicted to be being lined up for a serious cut post Afghanistan, maybe even further than FF20, it is, as they say, getting its digs in early. Various articles in the mainstream media, a couple [...]
The first part of this post is to challenge a few assumptions and ask a few questions, I don’t have the answers but thought it might be an interesting exercise in challenging the accepted wisdom. We make the assumption that land forces have to be organised in hierarchical formations of units, sub units, HQ’s, brigades, divisions, squadrons, batteries and company [...]
Future Force 2020 set out a list of objectives, tasks and force levels that post Afghanistan, in the land of budgetary milk and honey, the services would evolve into. Personally, I think the perennial strategy of hoping for jam tomorrow is hugely naive, it isn’t going to happen yet FF20 makes the assumption that the 2015 SDSR will see a [...]
Having built up a bit of momentum with the RN and RAF series it has been pretty difficult to get into the Land domain and by taking a service centric structure it has exposed the weakness of thinking along these strictly service lines. If we look at almost any operation it is obvious that no one service is dominant to [...]
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