British Armed Forces of the 21st Century

After all the reforms of the British Government in the military and all those cuts I read some interesting articles on the web stating that there is a plot by the Royal Air Force to absorb the whole Fleet Air Arm, with the Joint Force Harrier being only the first step. The article also implied how it would be better if instead of the FAA the RAF gets downsized, if not deleted altogether.

So here is an idea. Say it is the end of 2011 or the beginning of 2012 and the British Government states that after so many restructuring the whole structure of the British Armed Forces is no longer effective. So a major overhaul is needed and in place of the Land Command, Air Command and Fleet Headquarters two new unified commands are being formed: Home Command and Global Command (or call it whatever you like). Home Command absorbs the Territorial Army, Home Fleet, the air defence forces of the RAF... and has an AOR of the British isles and the waters between them and Iceland, Norway, the Netherlands and Spain.

Global Command commands the strategic deterrent force, the aircraft carriers, the forces abroad, including those in Germany, Gibraltar etc.

So how do you see such a structure in details, would it have any positive sides?
 
None at all as far as I can see.

The British military does most of it's work abroad at the moment so the only thing this "Home Command" would effectively control is the RAF's air defence squadrons, whatever's deployed in Northern Ireland and a few random ships patrolling Britain's territorial waters. Even the TA is mostly geared to reinforcing regular army units overseas nowadays.
 
Home Command? Global Command? In place of historically sentimental organisations such as the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force? Never going to happen - the government will gut the entire military of it's strategic and tactical capabilities before it attempts to undermine the historic traditions of the armed forces of which the public are both more aware of and more sentimentally attached to. Any British government would be more willing to leave the armed forces as an attractive mausoleum that belies the fact that what is inside of it is very much dead. It would be of greater political suicide than Canada in 1968.

Secondly, it should be pointed out that there is no longer such an entity as the "Territorial Army". Prior to 2003 the Territorial Army was primarily meant to form an active pool of troops to form separate military units as a back up to a major conflict (i.e a Cold War hot). Now that has changed and the entire TA was merged with the regular army to form an active reserve to augment the ranks of regular regiments on operations. The name "Territorial Army" is now only both a name used to differentiate between full time and part time soldiers of the now singular army (and not the two as previously existed) as well as, yes you guessed it; a sentimental attachment to the good old name of the Territorial Army. A home defence force is no longer needed - we no longer face invasion by a conventional enemy. A well trained police force can deal with most of the threats posed by current terrorist activities.

As for the RAF - yes, it is the bastard child of the armed forces, eating up an excessive amount of money to compensate itself for the fact it no longer as an offensive strategic role. And like all children if it doesn't get its way it throws a tantrum. But you'll never get rid of it. First of all, it would be a militarily dangerous thing to do. The RAF still performs invaluable functions in terms of tactical air support and strategic air lift - something that the sea and land orientated Navy and Army would most likely neglect to their detriment. Furthermore, all the RAF has to do is fuel up a Spitfire and fly it over London and the white cliff of Dover for the occasionally for the BBC in order to evoke the public's misty eyed affection for the brylcreem brigade and the services future is secured.

Further to this, I don't think you are actually aware of the unified structure of the military today. It already has a unified command structure - it's called the Ministry of Defence (created from the separate Admiralty, War Office and Air Ministry in the 1960's) and it already has a series of commands designed to specifically deal with defence at home and overseas. However, separate services continue to exist in order to allow for specialisation in Land, Sea and Air Operations and ensure the greatest efficiency. It’s up to planners at the MOD to bring them together for combined operations.

My point being, short of ASB such a structure is unlikely to be possible and would, if anything offer little in terms of organisation and cost over the current one. If anything, it would only be worse in both areas.

Russell

P.S. - Sorry if I appear harsh!
 

AndyC

Donor
As per Russell, except to point out that the HQ closest to "Global Command" already exists - it's PJHQ at Northwood.

Russell's already pointed out that the full gamut of Air Power is well beyond what the FAA (and AAC) are set up to do: Strategic Air Lift, Strategic Strike, ISTAR are the three main ones that leap to mind.

The FAA will always regard Air Power in terms of air defence screen for warships and SAR.

The AAC regard it in terms of Tactical Air Support ("manned artillery") and battlefield airlift ("Battlefield taxi").

For both, that's a highly appropriate thing for them to do, but it merely sees a small aspect of Air Power used as an adjunct to what they are focussed on. So you'll always want specialist Air Power military - whatever you'll call them.
 
I think it's far more likely that Britain would look at how to punch above its weight, globally, by spending money much more effectively. Basically cut back on equipment that is unlikely to ever be used, or expensive, and spend money on effective long range stuff, mostly bought off the shelf.

Even that I don't think is likely though, because no PM is elected with any real interest in this stuff, and the political price and risk are considered too high to scrap cherished formations or industry subsidies.

How about:

RAF:
Tornadoes & Eurofighters (since we already have them)
Transport & Tankers - Airbus or Boeing whichever is cheaper in future
Offensive Air - TU-160s and put GPS bombs in them, Predators, plus if necessary strap cruise missiles/stormshadow to Airbuses

Navy:
Carriers with navalized Eurofighters (since we have a bunch in storage), or failing that buy off-the-shelf Rafales, etc.
Escorts: Get rid of most of the ASW escorts (since likely enemies have few/poor subs), concentrate on air defence + nuclear subs with cruise missiles, --

Army:
Get rid of anything that we can't easily and quickly transport, for example most heavy armoured formations
 
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