Defence Review

Adult Staff The Staff Mess
142

This is not good news as a whole for community units.

School expansion units are flash in the pan, poorly funded and without full school and staff commitment a bad decision.

Also they gut local community units and therefore jeapodise the wider viability of the Cadet Forces as a whole.

My concern is that the MOD bean counters like the idea as it reduces infra costs and org tiers like HQAC like it as they are dealing with full time paid employees (teachers, on the whole) and thus issues such as safeguarding are wrapped up in ‘school policy’.

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143

CEP can be really good if the school supports it long term and works with local units. Ideally they should be situated where there is a gap in local community units.
However, many CEP are led by one keen member of staff and folds when they leave

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144

This

And this

Is what concerns me

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145

Overall it looks like a big reduction in strength / capability but a lack of clarity on where the extra cash is going.

Commitment to improve accommodation for service personnel has to be welcomed.

146

Interesting one for me is if the RM are going to be focusing on their Commando bit and moving away from the Amphibious Brigade will that be the end of 3 Commando Brigade as a unit?

Also if they are needing to make this new Ranger Brigade will this mean changing the whole of 16 Air Assault Brigade?

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147

Chinook and Puma fleet getting cut as well, 146QC and C130 fleet going so all tactical transport relying on the Atlas. Only 3 E7 coming now, Typhoon fleet reduced by 2 squadrons and the Hawk T1s giving aggressor training going, talk of the Red Arrows going to sponsorship funding but with current mount being withdrawn, and where does that leave the BofBMF… Dark days ahead for the RAF :frowning:

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148

Why are we ripping off a lame US name like Rangers? Just reform the Army Commandos.

3 Likes
149

Army to shrink to 72500? Less of a plan. More business as usual.

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150

Army isn’t missing recruitment targets if you reduce the targets

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151

Capita might get their bonus afterall.

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152

895×485 58 KB

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153

This annoyed me too. We could have used anything from history like pioneers, pathfinders, special operations executive, anything but rangers.

The whole thing stinks of copying the Americans across government. The briefing room, the counter terrorism operations centre, this. Why aren’t we being original?

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154

Why not just reinstate the Army Commandos?

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155

Echo!

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156

Really copying the US would mean never cutting anything. They’re surprisingly immune to it for people who bleat about small government.

Topic, me, topic…

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157

That’s within topic IMO. Cost vs capability. Or ‘quantity has a quality of its own’ as Stalin is alleged to have said.

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158

Ok I did some digging looks like the uk formed it’s first ranger unit in 1860.

The US surprise surprise ripped us off.

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159

I was just about to bring up the old Royal Irish Rangers.

Pioneers wouldn’t have worked since they were historically proto-engineers (and I think the term is still in use in that meaning?), pathfinders sounds a bit dorky (though you can say that about rangers too, really), and the SOE weren’t very military.

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160

What about simply ‘Commandoes’

161

Because the current government want to remodel the UK on America, especially the economy, consumer and workers’ rights, along with the imbalance of equality. They’re just applying the same logic to Defence.

Next step will be 12 month tours with minimal time in between, otherwise there won’t be enough people to fill deployments.