@Raven22 - I was just about to write something very similar to this.
I have seen two significant restructure proposals in the past 24 months go up towards the boss. Both were stopped along the way by those vested interests, with negative repercussions for at least one author (despite being simply the officer who got the task). With that lesson in mind, why would an ARA person want to touch it....
I'd lower the rank to CAPT, and include WO's. Just to make sure.....
Thanks Raven and Takao
I wasn't trying to stir the pot but your frank and honest response certainly suggest the Reserve has a problem.
My view is that Army needs to provide a staged response to any given Military threat.
From Brigade level and below we should cope with a near peer adversary with a level of sustainment for the immediate future.
If the threat goes above a Brigade level of commitment then things are getting serious and we should have the option to commitment for a short duration extral ARA battalions for a short period of time.
Escalate the threat in numbers committed above this and we are getting into a serious mobilisation situation.
Regarding the Reserves I can certainly see a lot more service ribbons worn on ANZAC day by serving Reservist than back in the 80's.
So yes I guess the reserves are providing some supplement in personal numbers to overseas commitments.
What form this should take into the future I can not say.
But does appear a bit piece meal with individual s grabbed from here and there or I may be misinformed.
Regarding a third AIF well the future is always an unpredictable beast, so while can look to the immediate future and say such a scenario probably want happen, it still does not mean it wont.
I would hoped tucked in a draw somewhere is a plan for such a worst can situation and how to deal with it. No doubt such expansion will involve a rapid expansion and no doubt this is where the current reserve units have an important role.
If I may make a suggestion, that for Army to reply to ALL scenarios then in the round out / expand function of 2 DIV, it may need a much greater content of regular soldiers.
Culturally I'd suggest it needs to lose the Reserve Div mind set and have a true and valued role in the ARMY.
I'm sure many suggestions could be made..........But extra regular soldiers would be the start
I'll suggest a couple
Suggest the new UAS surveillance assets been introduced, such as Shadow M2 and Wasp are integrated in 2 Div and operated by regular soldiers
No different to the Regular Brigades.
Certainly Remove the M777 guns from the current Brigades and replace them with an SPG. The testing was done and we were down to two options ..... Either will do so just make the call. The M777 can now be part of 2 Div but as regular unit no different to as today.
Also considere a small number of regulars at battalion level doing some of the most specialist positions not filled by part timers. Support Company comes to mind.
This will cost significant money and energy that I'm sure many would wish spent on other areas.
However we seem to a have belief we will only commit to relatively small scale contingency's.
PS : A Brigade is actually small scale. We just think it's big.
Some expansion future proofing may be prudent for a balanced Army.
After all the future may not be so kind.
Regards S
