Tomorrow's Army, Today's Challenges

From this side of the Atlantic, the British Army General Sir Richard Dannatt, Chief of the General Staff, set out his thoughts on the evolving nature of contemporary conflict, and the doctrine and force structure the British Army must adopt if it is to meet the challenges it faces, in a speech at the 2007 RUSI Future Land Warfare Conference. (Not sure why now given attention).

There is a summary on: http://insurgencyresearchgroup.wordp...ys-challenges/

The full speech is: http://www.mod.uk/defenceinternet/de...challenges.htm

In formulating my Intent, I asked myself three questions:

Who collectively is the British Army and what does it stand for? The Moral Component – an emphasis on People. How should the Army think? The Conceptual Component – the doctrinal piece. What should the Army be prepared for and with what should it be provided? The Physical Component – the training and equipping dimensions.

A few minutes later I found a very different 2008 speech and will try to attach that! http://www.cryptome.org/uk-war-2018.zip Not sure what is going on, anyway both should be of interest and not just Rob Thornton.


davidbfpo

Interesting links. Seems to me on a quick read that the first is philosophical; the second is more reality based. Need to reread and ponder.

Edited to add. Just finished a thorough reading and I think my initial assessment was correct; the first was to the RUSI, a conference that likely had as many or more civilians as military people and the second in more detail to a conference that likely had more military attendees and is more nut and bolt, less philosophy.

In any event, I note Dannet's disagreement with Rupert smith -- with which I totally agree. His speech makes sense to me...