Army Rumour Service

Register a free account today to join our community
Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site, connect with other members through your own private inbox and will receive smaller adverts!

Is your AR unit fit for purpose

Hey if you could get over the contempt for all things American, and embrace our dark side you folks could revamp your reserve forces into something like ours.
I love the idea of a US style reserve system - how about paying your back taxes (I think there was some tea involved) so we can fund a GI bill?
 
Yes it should but the overwhelming opinion here (which I concur with) suggests that the definition / direction is failing everyone. There are a number of reserve units (of the more special variety) who, because their HQ's don't know what to do with them, have consistently (since the cold war) been effectively self tasking. This is largely due to top cover in high up places but I am convinced that if you provide a decent solution to a problem then it will be leaped at by those that we are (probably a bit unfairly) slagging off for their short sightedness and lack of understanding.

I am more comfortable with the non-INF world but ultimately we have to frame these things in an INF context for the army to get it, so if you take the RIFLES as an example: Policy makers stated that defence needed to make cuts. MoD tasked the Army to produce a plan. RGJ, LI, RGBW and D&D premptively came up with a plan that accepted they were going to lose bods but subsequently safegaurded a number of battalions. Compare this with how the predecessors of the SCOTS faired.

I appreciate the difference here is that the Army, as yet, does not see that there is a problem with the AR. The pre-emptive proposal of solutions may help change this.

I know this is day dreaming BTW.
Solution for inf being?
 
Taxes what are those??

You need to create something akin to the GI bill to help with the recruitment issues.

GI Bill | National Guard

GI Bill Kicker | National Guard

If you want young people to fill your ranks, give them incentives like this.
I have posited in the past that we need to start again, fund FE for those willing to serve and tie it to starting them at aged 18 or even 17. Take 6 months or so for full time training and fully fund their FE whilst retaining a reserve commitment from them. This would cover technical course too.
I cant see it happening though!
 
I have posited in the past that we need to start again, fund FE for those willing to serve and tie it to starting them at aged 18 or even 17. Take 6 months or so for full time training and fully fund their FE whilst retaining a reserve commitment from them. This would cover technical course too.
I cant see it happening though!

That is how I got to UNI! No rich parents for me , so I sold my soul. The Guard picked up the tab and I even qualified for a bonus(bounty) of 8 grand...snicker. You can also earn a few college credits for military training. The great thing though out here is the ability to go active after your education is done, or for the regular Army go guard. It keeps the skill sets and experienced soldiers in the ranks.
 
So specialist roles within the infantry
For example. It's more about moving the structure of the reserve Bn / Sqn / Regt away from a mirror of a regular one, with the attendant carreer / MS / G1 processes acting against the best interests of the army and the individual.

In the model above, Pte Bloggs could join the Mortars group and stay with it their entire time in the AR - promoting if they wish (and if there are places) but not neccessarily being forced to do so because it is what would happen in the regular Bns. LCpl / Cpl Bloggs then attaches or deploys in the role, they are more likely to be of equivelent (if not greater!) competence to those in their receiving unit.
 
That is how I got to UNI! No rich parents for me , so I sold my soul. The Guard picked up the tab and I even qualified for a bonus(bounty) of 8 grand...snicker. You can also earn a few college credits for military training. The great thing though out here is the ability to go active after your education is done, or for the regular Army go guard. It keeps the skill sets and experienced soldiers in the ranks.
This is the part with which the Regular Army here (or parts of it at least) struggle with on a cultural level. Studies have shown that a British Regular soldier is likely to associate professionalism with time served. In other words you could do a job to a perfect standard, but if you are only available for less than 7 days a week, you will never be considered professional. Whilst it was imagined to be a Regular/Reserve issue, experience with the New Employment Model suggests that the same in/out group division is applied to Regulars who take a step back to, say, 200 days per year instead of 365.

There are hints that Australian Regulars suffer from the same phenomenon, and one of their medical studies observed that the mental map needs to change from a vertical value hierarchy:

1. Regular
---------
2. Reserve
---------
3. Civilian

...where your 'worth' is defined by a pecking order, to a horizontal one:

Regular | Reserve | Civilian

...where each category is seen as just another way of serving.

Some nations have grown up and are far more likely to promote the second model (e.g. Sweden, Finland etc). In my experience, a factor that weighs heavily in this thinking is the relative size of the three components. Where the Reserve is, for reasons of cost or utility, far larger than the Regular component, they don't seem to get hung up on this issue. I think this is because everyone - from the most gung-ho General to the thickest private soldier - can see that there really is no alternative. Israel is a good example of this. It seems as though the more the Regular thinks that they don't need the Reserve because they are of a near-viable size in their own right, the more they go in for deindividuation and demonisation...kinda like a lot of the posts on this thread.
 
This is the part with which the Regular Army here (or parts of it at least) struggle with on a cultural level. Studies have shown that a British Regular soldier is likely to associate professionalism with time served. In other words you could do a job to a perfect standard, but if you are only available for less than 7 days a week, you will never be considered professional. Whilst it was imagined to be a Regular/Reserve issue, experience with the New Employment Model suggests that the same in/out group division is applied to Regulars who take a step back to, say, 200 days per year instead of 365.

There are hints that Australian Regulars suffer from the same phenomenon, and one of their medical studies observed that the mental map needs to change from a vertical value hierarchy:

1. Regular
---------
2. Reserve
---------
3. Civilian

...where your 'worth' is defined by a pecking order, to a horizontal one:

Regular | Reserve | Civilian

...where each category is seen as just another way of serving.

Some nations have grown up and are far more likely to promote the second model (e.g. Sweden, Finland etc). In my experience, a factor that weighs heavily in this thinking is the relative size of the three components. Where the Reserve is, for reasons of cost or utility, far larger than the Regular component, they don't seem to get hung up on this issue. I think this is because everyone - from the most gung-ho General to the thickest private soldier - can see that there really is no alternative. Israel is a good example of this. It seems as though the more the Regular thinks that they don't need the Reserve because they are of a near-viable size in their own right, the more they go in for deindividuation and demonisation...kinda like a lot of the posts on this thread.


Well from a cultural perspective the Guard/Reserve has always been important to America. Vietnam was a historical blip which is where they earned the negative reputation. However with the decrease in size of the Active Army they are more vital and have nearly half the "teeth" brigades of the total force. The Guard also has the disaster relief mission which is nothing but great PR here and a very useful recruiting image and helps bridge the civil military divide. The Guard is everywhere and in people see it. Depending on the unit and the individual they can also be better than their regular counterparts to be quite honest.
 
That is how I got to UNI! No rich parents for me , so I sold my soul. The Guard picked up the tab and I even qualified for a bonus(bounty) of 8 grand...snicker. You can also earn a few college credits for military training. The great thing though out here is the ability to go active after your education is done, or for the regular Army go guard. It keeps the skill sets and experienced soldiers in the ranks.
I think this is a great idea. Letting reserve soldiers do regular basic training would give the army reserve a better standard of soldier and also help with the reserves image with the regs. It would also allow better fluidity between the reserve and regs. It seems like a lot of people join the reserves with the intention of going regular at a later date. So it would save the mod money in the long run as they wouldn't have to re do regular basic training.
I would keep the condensed basic training for reserves for people who work as an option though.
 
Top