British Army will have to rely on civilian drivers, reserves and foreign armies

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/9275812/British-Army-will-have-to-rely-on-civilian-drivers-reserves-and-foreign-armies.html

By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent

7:00AM BST 19 May 2012

In the most significant reforms the Army in half-a-century The Daily Telegraph has learnt that as few as five infantry battalions totalling 2,500 soldiers will be cut but a further 17,500 jobs will go mainly from logistics troops, engineers and artillery.

Military commanders have condemned the move as creating an “unbalanced Army” that will be reliant on a “Tesco’s just in time” supply tactic for campaigns.

The reforms have been forced on the Army after it was forced to reduce from 102,000 to 82,000 under defence cuts.

For the last three decades the Army has put an increasing emphasis on support troops who provide the front line with a constant stream of ammunition, food and technical equipment and are regarded a the key battle winners.

But under the reforms set out in the Future Force 2020 the Army has decided to get rid of large swathes of troops from the Royal Logistic Corps, Royal Engineers and Royal Artillery, defence sources have disclosed.

They have instead decided to retain a strong infantry fighting force and take the risk of relying on private firms, Territorial Army reservists and foreign armies to deliver stores.

Logistics officers have condemned the move as “bonkers” and motivated by David Cameron’s attempt to avoid the political fall-out of axing “cap badges” of famous regiments.

“It takes two and a half years to train up a specialist in the RLC but you can become an infantryman in 12 weeks,” said a RLC officer.

“The idea to make the Army top heavy in infantry is bonkers. You need lots of logis (RLC) and sappers to make the whole thing work.

“This is clearly linked to the political imperative to save cap badges.”

At least a third of the RLC’s 21 regiments are likely to go reducing the force by as much as a third to under 11,000 men.

Both the engineers and artillery will similarly be reduced by a third to about 5,000 men each with the majority of the gunners’ heavy weapons turned over to the TA.

“We are creating a new vision less dependent on the logistics tail, relying on contractors, whole fleet management and the greater use reserves,” said an officer involved in the planning. “Foreign armies who are less fond of the bayonet end of front line life can also help out as well as the Americans.”

Soldiers are also angry that the Government has delayed its announcement Future Force 2020 calling it “a running sore” that is leaving troops uncertain about their future.

The final plans were meant to be announced next Tuesday but for political reasons, particularly after the furore over cuts to Scottish regiments, it will not happen until mid-June at the earliest.

“We just want to get on with it, put the debate to bed and say this is what we are doing. This is a festering sore and runs the risk of becoming ugly,” said one officer.

“We have 100,000 regulars waiting to see if they have been saved or not. It doesn’t sit very well, making people wait.”

The Force 2020 announcement is will come at the same time the Army a further 3,000 redundancies.

An MoD spokesman said: "We are currently working on the redesign of the Regular Army as it reduces to 82,000 with an emphasis on increasing our use of reserves.

Announcements on Army 2020 will be made when decisions have been taken."