Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Redundancies Tranche 2: last for RN and RAF, more to come for the Army


As announced by the MOD:

Applicants will serve up to six months' notice before leaving the Armed Forces, while non-applicants will serve up to 12 months' notice. Those who wish to leave earlier can ask their Service.

Those selected for redundancy, and who meet the selection criteria, will have the opportunity to apply to shortage area categories.
The Royal Navy and Royal Marines are notifying approximately 170 personnel that they are to be made redundant, of whom approximately 120 (72 per cent) are applicants and 50 (28 per cent) non-applicants.

The Army are notifying approximately 2,900 personnel they are to be made redundant, of whom approximately 2,100 (72 per cent) are applicants and 800 (28 per cent) non-applicants.

The RAF are notifying approximately 730 personnel they are to be made redundant, of whom approximately 515 (71 per cent) are applicants and 215 (29 per cent) non-applicants.


For the Army, this is sadly not at all the end of the pain. RAF and Royal Navy will achieve the rest of their reductions by other means, without needing further big shelving of manpower with redundancies.

6 comments:

  1. Hi Gabriele,

    Lots of colonals and above going, which I support.
    I assume that as we move towards 11 brigades, instead of the orginal 16, there will be a few more brigaders looking for a job?
    On another subject, to we have enough light guns to equip 11 RA regiments?
    Regards
    Phil

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    1. I think there are around 122 or so L118s in service. Strike down some at 14 Regiment (training), and 36 for the 2 Regular regiments (PARA and Commando) on it, and you can equip the 7 light brigades with at most 10 guns.
      There's the whole fleet management argument, and the fact that there's no need for regiments back home to have all their guns all the time, of course... but the problem is that it seems to me that there won't even be an attempt to give each brigade its artillery element.
      They will group a few regiments in one or two Fires brigades (this is how i'm interpreting the words of general Wall, at least), one mainly made up of regulars and AS90s, for the three armored brigades, with another on L118s with, probably, lots of reservists for the other 7 brigades.

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    2. Gabriele,
      I read something on think defence, that there was not enough light guns to give each briagde an artillery regiment.
      Thanks for confirming that.
      Any idea which 4 brigade HQs will go?
      I am assuming that only the 3 armoured and RR brigade HQs will be deployable, the 7 low readiness or regional brigades HQs being static?
      Phil

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    3. They should actually be deployable with augementation for certain ops or for sustaining an enduring deployment in future, but the effective credibility of those brigades is to be seen. They are a big question mark in my opinion, as of now.

      And no, i have no idea of the brigades that will vanish... Perhaps the Army will want to bring back 19 Brigade and even 11, which was briefly re-activated for afghanistan ops as you'll probably remember, so some of the current regional badges could change, while others vanish altogether.

      I've been reading quickly down the new army doctrinal documents published in May, and i think i'll make a post perhaps already tomorrow: there seem to be contradictions...

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    4. Gabriele,
      I am thinking that the 7 brigades we be spread around the UK to cover all areas.
      Maybe 2 in Scotland, 1 northern England, 1 Wales and Northern Ireland, 1 Midlands, 1 in the South West, and 1 in the South East.
      The RR Brigades will remain in Colchester.
      The 3 Armooured Brigades, at least one within reach of Salisbury plain, maybe the other 2 based in Catterick?
      RR Brigade and the 3 Armoured brigades to come under the deployable Divisional HQ, the 7 infantry brigades to come under the static divisional HQ?
      Phil

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    5. Yeah, it's how i expect it to be, too. General Wall hinted in his speech at RUSI that the 3 Armored Brigades will be put in the Salisbury area. As close as possible.

      As for 2 brigades in Scotland, that might be a bit much. I've actually been wondering if they won't remove 38 Irish Brigade and join it to 51 Scottish to form a single large northern brigade.
      38 Irish is, after all, tiny. So either it is merged, or it is given command of some units (probably based in Scotland!) when those return from germany.
      Depends on how politically acceptable it'll be to disband the last brigade in Northern Ireland, i suspect.

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