UK military problems & policies

[Paul Smyth]

mmm... you obviously didn't enjoy yourself in Main Building, which I can understand. Personally, I was very happy to get no closer to MOD than the PJHQ, but I don't share your disdain for those who worjk there, especially when the single-services sometimes hide their own inadequacies behind the centre. For instance, Army retention over the past few years might have improved if it had spent more of its budget on the quality of accommodation for its people. That is an historic issue and blaming awful housing/barracks on the centre is a touch hypercritical. I agree that the EP is a goat. Apart from obvious major programmes that require a decade or more to complete other projects should be excluded if they cannot be in-service within 3 years. We can't live on UORs.

PS

[Coldstreamer]

Paul,

I'm not laying our problems entirely at the Centre by any means; as you say, there is ownership everywhere. I think the problem runs deeper and wider, insofar as heresy held anywhere against shibboleths like DSG05, FRES, FIS, FAS etc is met with isolation, and the path to advancement is to deliver savings. We have a frightened chain of command who in the absence of a national strategy err toward caution or familiar pain. Genuinely creative thought is not encouraged, and the culture of the Yes Man thrives.
Of course its not everybody. But there are enough damaged goods in sufficiently senior positions to prevent the confident functional approach to problem solving that we need in todays world.
When was the last time you ever saw a C2 Estimate conducted before an operation was launched from PJHQ?

[William F. Owen]

@ I think the problem runs deeper and wider, insofar as heresy held anywhere against shibboleths like DSG05, FRES, FIS, FAS etc is met with isolation, and the path to advancement is to deliver savings.

@ We have a frightened chain of command who in the absence of a national strategy err toward caution or familiar pain. Genuinely creative thought is not encouraged, and the culture of the Yes Man thrives.

Coldstreamer is utterly correct, and in my personal experience things are very much worse than he suggests.

Just for the Infantry alone, the litany of unbelievable errors, and bizarre data free decisions, like the 60/51mm mortar issue, the 40mm GMG, BOWMAN PRC-354, the FIST fiasco, and even the PAM 45 re-write, suggests some things are dreadfully wrong. I even understand the D-INF is looking to "Develop Light Forces Doctrine," -which suggests that we currently don't have any!

[Coldstreamer]

On the up side, our uniforms are pretty snazzy, our banter first rate, and even though Selly Oak is full of amputees, everybody know...Chicks dig scars.

Also, it would seem the biggest contributors to the Help for Heroes fund are....individual members of the armed forces doing charity events. Er....I thought it was meant to be the general public helping us out...not us helping us out....?

The sooner I'm CGS the better, I say.

[William F. Owen]

The sooner I'm CGS the better, I say.

...so here are some tips.

a.) You belong to proper Regiment, full of "good chaps," married to "nice gals", so you have an excellent start.

b.) Get a tour in Special Forces under your belt, or even better, fail selection with an injury. "Frightfully bad luck" goes a long way.

c.) Lace your conversation with words like "Effect" and "capability." Mimic the vocabulary of SO-2s in the DECs, and arms directors.

d.) Be involved in some frightful disaster, that no one knows about - it's "frightfully bad luck."

e.) Write supportive articles in "Battle Notes" and the British Army Review.

f.) Stay "on message."

Hope this helps

[Paul Smyth]

Sadly, there is no sense that things at MOD will improve. The headline '1.5% per annum increase' in defence spending over the next 3 years is misleading and Staff levels there are being 'streamlined' (i.e. further reduced by 25% - yes 1 in 4). Staff reductions will effect both civilian and uniformed posts (where a number are gapped already), which might be good news for those officers hoping to avoid a stint in Main Building, but a major concern for defence policy as over time the withering military footprint in Whitehall will lose influence. It may be apocryphal, but if the Dept of Health is being steered without doctors at the helm, the spectre of an MOD being run without sailors, marines, soldiers and airmen would make current problems 'the good old days'. Anecdotally, if I ever have doubts about my decision to jump ship, I can walk into MOD...

PS

[Coldstreamer]

BillF - gleaming advice....

a-e....all done already (noble injury rather than gucci pistol scenario, sadly)

f....sorry....all bull####ted out!

Paul - unsurprising. We remain a profession in perpetual decline - back to the watery backbones of our lords and masters. Not irreversible. Remedial action:

- All Military Staff in MOD posts to wear uniform at work starting next week, and remember who they are (I used to do that from time to time...it was as though I'd run into the building with a blood-dripping axe).

- Remember how to say 'no' when something makes no sense.

- Make output not savings based plans and decisions. Ensure logic trail is understood as to why infantry can't be trained in 14 weeks (I know your Patrol Based Infantry model sees efficiencies Wilf, but remember the start state of today's yoof).

- Only agree to do things 'properly', based on sound judgement and terms

Much of this is highly subjective - but that is the basis of professional knowlege, from Law to Medicine. For example, when the Govt forbade us to force generate for TELIC 1 because 'the decision for war had not yet been taken', resulting in numerous casualties from ill prepared troops, the Chiefs should have refused to soldier until we were adequatelly prepared, because the decision was bollocks. The difference lying between mobilising a force and using it. A ready force could have been stood down had Iraq complied...etc. But one example.

Too much hubris, too many fools, too many idiots masquerading as brains, too many ambitions overwhelming consciences...

[slapout9]

I like the way Ya"ll talk...Ya'll must be from Southern England.