The Defence Secretary is about to announce the new shape of the Future Army 2020. Historic Regiments will be disbanded, amalgamated or merged with others. The footprint of the Regular Army will shrink to a few, super garrisons in the UK, while the Reserve Forces are supposedly going to be increased to take up the slack.
Historically this is a bad decision. In 1999, when the nominal establishment of the TA was about 70,000, they never met that figure. The current figure of 40,000 has never been recruited to that figure, and the reality is that at any one time, probably no more than 20,000 are trained and deployable.
Now, it appears that the proposal is to increase the strength of the TA by another 40,000 or so - hoping that many of the Regular troops will join the TA after being discarded by the Regular Army.
It's a joke. Would you go and work for an employer part-time, with all the risks of still being sent to war, after having been thrown out of your full time job? I wouldn't! T
he Government talks about sharing with other nations for future wars - but, the Falklands War proved how hollow that is. The USA and NATO refused to help and were actually obstructive.
Isn't it about time the government wised up and put our National Defence at the forefront rather than trying to be the world's policeman?
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments on this blog are moderated by the Author.