"merging the admin div functions into a single regiment" Exactly. SCOTS have done it. LIGHT are looking at it. Thats the way the brass want it to go - single HQ for each super-large regiment, possibly under a new "Corps of Infantry" - sensitive subject for many.

Basically the army has always tended to task organise, modern expeditionary ops demonstrate this fairly clearly (the Cold War was somewhat different with estbs much more 'fixed' although 'Atts & Dets' were often significant). The bde HQ (in particular) doesn't have a lot to do with the number of units, apart from CSS units that more conventionally were 'managed' by div staff. Storr's basic point is that the enlarged HQs are indulging in endless planning of little if not nurgatory value. Traditionally Brit HQs have not done this sort of contingency planning. He suggests that staff trg is not paying enough attention to actually controlling the battle at bde level. One telling remark is that the RF came under repeated bn attacks sptd by tks but didn't bother to report it to bde HQ! (actually I take issue with this, I'm reasonably sure it was reported by the DS bty at least as part of their normal fire control procedures so would have been known in bde HQ where their regt tac HQ was, however, if I've correlated correctly they were using more than one bty (reasonable under the circumstances even with AS90) so tac HQ would have known from voice reporting and probably via BATES depending how allotment authority was configured).

1. All SF signals squadrons are now being incorporated into the new 18 Signals Regiment. Its structure will be: SAS Signals Sqn SBS Signals Sqn SRR Signals Sqn Satcom Sqn HQ Sqn No mention about support to 1 Para although that might come. Source: JDW 2. Each of the future Mechanised Brigades will retain a Warrior Mechanised battalion for "enhanced force protection" even after the introduction of FRES. Is FRES really worth it if you need to retain the Warriors? Source: Janes IDR May 2005.

1. Thankyou. 2. "does it make sense?" Good question. What exactly is the advantage of a medium brigade having just one Warrior unit which will undoubtedly arrive last and require a separate logistics tail? Can FRES do the job alone or cant it? I suspect someone has figured out the army have been building up a huge inventory of heavy equipment which they now claim they dont need - Warrior, Chal 2, AS90 long barrel upgrade - and that someone has said "wait a minute, you're mothballing large chunks of this stuff and you want all new equipment?" "Transformation be damned..finish your greens, then you can have some pudding!"

Note pictures http://www.news.mod.uk/news_headline_story2.asp?newsItem_id=3511

Various bits and pieces: - Article in this weeks JDW about the BAE Systems portee system for the LIMAWS (G) bid. For those of you who haven't seen the picture, it is essentially the M777 Lightweight howitzer on the back of a Supacat 8 x 6. It is not the same as Caesar as it needs to be dismounted before being firewd. BAE claim that this can be done in 3 mins. The advantage of portee is that it saves space, and as it only weighs 12.6 tons, it can fit within a C130. Janes think that only 45 will be bought which is a very small number. Neutraliser - do you know how these will be distributed? - Some stuff from arsse.co.uk. New automatic grenade launchers will go to the SF machine gun platoon. Peacetime organisation will be 6 x GPMG and 6 x AGL. In wartime there will be 9 of each. - Organisation of new support company's for recce reg't will include Engineer Recce platoon, Sniper Section, FIST platoon, ATGW Platoon. - Each of the Mech /armd brigades will be supported by a Recce reg't of two recce sqn's and support sqn. Each Light brig (inc 3rd Cdo) will have one recce sqn that will be attached to the UK based armd recce regt's. Therefore each of the three UK recce reg'ts will have 3 sqns, whereas the two germany based ones will have 2. Hope that's clear! As Neutraliser will undoubtedly point out, the real organisation is unlikely to be that tidy on operations, but that's the theory anyway. - Alot of interesting stuff about 4/73 battery which is the RA deep recce battery in 5 Regiment. Despite the fact that the British army is chronically short of deep recce units, most posters on arsse seem to think that the RA aren't supporting it properly and that it will go. Don't forget this is only arsse so it might not be true. - Posters on arsse aren't any clearer than we are about the make up of brigades in the next future years. Some thinking that both 7 and 20 Armd brigades will have a light battalion but no one really knows. - The reserve artillery regiments that used Javelin SAMs are now being converted to artillery. 100 Regiment will have light gun batteries supporting 16 AA and 3 Cdo Brigades. - Some stuff also about the use of ISTAR and the role of intelligence. Some poster seem to think that it's all over the place - one person stated that we were years behind the US in terms of docrine (not just equipment). - One complaint was that the Royal Artillery are not good at sharing information. I have no idea if this is true, but it does shed an interesting light on some of the posts that have been made in this thread about Brigade HQ's knowing what is going on in their AOR. No one should take arsse as gospel, but maybe some of our better informed posters can shed some light on all this.

Rumours on arsse suggest that 4 Mech Brig will move from Germany to Catterick in a couple of years time. 19 Light Brigade will move from Catterick to Edinburgh. Don't know if it's true, and no one has stated what might happen to 51 Inf Brig.

Comments on artillery list. Some of the organisational items are not entirely consistent with the detail in the official announcements, but plans could well be evolving.

Charles Heyman has updated his armedforces website to reflect FAS. The link is: http://www.armedforces.co.uk/armyindex.htm It's clear that he doesn't know what battalions are going where or future brigade structure. His website is also littered with inaccuracies (he still hasn't heard of Commando 21!), but it's a useful starting point as to what's going on.

RE interestedamateur 15 Sep, the following is from DPA's 'Preview' for August: "The requirement for rapid-reaction, high-mobility forces is behind the Advanced Ordnance Demonstrator (AOD). The main AOD objective is to show how new ordnance technologies can offer heavyweight 155mm firepower in an air-portable, lightweight self-propelled (LWSP) howitzer. AOD firings are planned for 2008. QinetiQ is lead and is required to assemble industry consortia through competition to deliver the full programme. The results are planned to feed the Indirect Fire Precision Attack programme. With air frame carrying capacity the limiting factor the target weight of a LWSP is around 15 tonnes, a third of the AS90 howitzer. It is expected that the AOD will need to feature a recoil-reducing extended range lightweight advanced munitions. Composite barrel construction techniques and advanced muzzle brakes will also be included in investigations." This looks like leading to the artillery component of FRES and medium forces. The implication is that the current evaluation including M777 and Caesar is for some interim capability on a limited scale or provide something more that L118 for 19 Lt Bde or to dual equip a handful of btys or a mix of these.