Military fashion delivers more than its fair share of acronyms and buzzwords, in a game of bullshit bingo the card would need to be the size of a newspaper. As the COIN theory seems to being discredited and replaced with whatever comes next it is interesting to note that it’s predecessor seems to be making a comeback. The Revolution in [...]
Out today from RUSI is a paper from Vice-Admiral Sir Jeremy Blackham KCB and Gwyn Prins from the LSE that makes a case for spending on the Royal Navy The defence review is occurring at a time of extreme financial pressure at home and considerable military risk in Afghanistan. Yet it would be a grave failure if it attended principally – or [...]
Completing our look at logistics I am going to delve into the complex world of pallets. Anyone thinking that pallet dimensions would be coordinated with vehicle dimensions, aircraft hold dimensions and ISO containers is in for a shock! We know that ISO containers are the desired method of shipping by road, rail and sea. Their large size and weight means [...]
Any discussion on vehicle coherence should logically be proceeded by the finalisation of doctrine and their resultant structures; do we go down the medium weight path as envisaged by FRES, are square armoured regiments supported by armoured infantry still relevant, are the multi equipment brigades the way forward or do we simply have lots of light infantry supported by a [...]
In Part 1 of this series I looked out the disadvantages of having too many types of vehicle fulfilling similar roles and with similar capabilities. To start off Part 2 I am going to look at a single vehicle type, the GMLRS. GMLRS is a vitally useful system, highly precise, incredibly effective and with utility in all most spectrums of [...]
The desire to consolidate the Army’s vehicle fleet is about more than mere neatness, the more vehicle types we have, the more we need vehicle mechanics to be trained and when they are on a training course who is actually doing the spanner bashing, the more spares we need, the more contracts we have to manage, the more driver training, [...]
In the last of the series on logistics I am going to look at containerisation and trucks, sorry it’s a bit long The Army is generally moving towards a rational and coherent fleet of logistic vehicles. The old Bedford MK’s and TM’s are slowly going out of service to be eventually replaced by the MAN Military Trucks Support Vehicle (SV) [...]
The Royal Logistic Corps is making a huge contribution to operations in Afghanistan, however, the overall MoD wide management of supply chain accounting has come in for some severe criticism, the NAO releasing a fairly damning report on equipment accounting procedures. The NAO report stated “Despite action by the Department to improve its asset management and accounting, the issues I [...]
The Royal Logistics Corps is not nicknamed the Really Large Corps for nothing; it is the single largest element of the British Army and was formed in 1993 by amalgamating Royal Army Ordnance Corps, Royal Pioneer Corps, Army Catering Corps, Royal Corps of Transport and the posties from the Royal Engineers. One of the problems with the RLC is that [...]
For clarity, I have decided to call this post ‘artillery’ rather than anything trendy like joint fires or air land integration. Artillery has had a mini renaissance in Afghanistan with the continuing and increasing use of GMLRS, the 70km sniper, 105mm and even the humble mortar. With likely future conflicts taking place over a wider area there is a trend [...]
In the final few FDR posts left before I start a consolidation and presentation exercise (which will resurrect the Wiki) I am going to structure them in two sections where relevant. We all know that the forthcoming review is going to be nothing more than an exercise in slashing costs with a thin veneer of strategic direction. Objective 1 – Short Term [...]
An interesting article from Alexander Woolfson in the Standpoint Magazine The most famous post-war assessment of Britain’s international position came in 1962 from the US Secretary of State Dean Acheson, who observed: “Great Britain has lost an empire and has not yet found a role.” Acheson’s words suggested not only uncertainty about Britain’s role but also its decline in international [...]
What with the massed ranks of analysts, defence journalists and coalition politicians gunning for those thousands of cold war relics we have sitting idle just waiting for the chop, it’s time to see what they mean. A cynic might think that getting rid of cold war relics is simply a smokescreen, hiding budget driven cuts behind a veil of forward [...]
Some choice quotes from Nick Harvey MP speaking at the RUSI Future Maritime Operations Conference today. He starts by evoking the memory of Richard Haldane and his reforms in the early 1900′s, making reference to the fact that he was a liberal politician, lets brush over the fact that Lord Haldane became a Labour Party member in 1923 and served [...]
Whilst we are still discussing FRES SV, a quick heads up for some of the articles/posts coming up Air defence Indirect fire and air land integration Close combat (inc small arms) Base infrastructure Logistics Communications Strategy and Learning & Development of Doctrine Combat Engineering Integrating civilian aid into the military matrix Has anyone got any more subject ideas?
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