Army Reserve Restructuring

[dapaterson]

Security requirements for the F35 are such that there will be a need, when deployed to FOBs, domestic or overseas, to have airfield security.

Thus, it's a Canadian operational requirement.

 

[Remius]

It was a while back since I was 18 but....


It is amazing what a little bit of filthy lucre will do to motivate a youngster. And to be honest some Arctic bragging rights wouldn't have gone amiss either.

What motivates youngsters these days is not what motivated them back then. Different times, different youngsters.

Money is not the same motivator that it used to be.

 

[Rifleman62]

Tasking the ARes as VP guards will have the same result as the tasking of National Survival did. (Yes, I am that old)

Even then, there was no equipment for the role except some additional ropes, ladders and stretchers.

It was so well thought out: take a streetcar/bus (45 Min) to Minto Armouries, draw the rescue eqpt (2 Hrs), try and start the 21/2 and 3/4 's (no block heaters), move to Portage La Prairie (50 miles = 2 hrs). Guess what? The ICBM has already detonated.

After the Big One: Nuclear War on the Prairies​

 

[markppcli]

Security requirements for the F35 are such that there will be a need, when deployed to FOBs, domestic or overseas, to have airfield security.

Thus, it's a Canadian operational requirement.

Totally agree, but that’s going to be a persistent need. I see that as a requirement for a regular Bn being re rolled to a “RCAF Regiment” vs a task for the reserves which are unreliable at best for domestic force generation. Alternatively that seems like a fine job for the GRTF.

 

[KevinB]

Totally agree, but that’s going to be a persistent need. I see that as a requirement for a regular Bn being re rolled to a “RCAF Regiment” vs a task for the reserves which are unreliable at best for domestic force generation. Alternatively that seems like a fine job for the GRTF.

TAPV Regiment enters the chat.

 

[dapaterson]

TAPV Regiment enters the chat.

Gonna need more heavy airlift then...

 

[markppcli]

TAPV Regiment enters the chat.

East and West companies, mounted in TAPV. Deployable Coy. Probably not a fun job, could also be a roaring task between sub units.

But in general a persistent need shouldn’t be provided by the ARes.

 

[dapaterson]

I mean, if we're looking for a regiment to do Vital Point security, where could we ever find one that already refers to themselves as "VP"?

 

[MilEME09]

Totally agree, but that’s going to be a persistent need. I see that as a requirement for a regular Bn being re rolled to a “RCAF Regiment” vs a task for the reserves which are unreliable at best for domestic force generation. Alternatively that seems like a fine job for the GRTF.

ARes cant force generate because it really isnt designed to do so, we have it set up to do individual augmentation well, anything more is a struggle because of the rules we created. On paper the Regular force army is 22,000 give or take, and a ARes is 21,000. probably less then that given our retention issues, but i'm going off wikipedia. Now when you have a Reserve force almost the same size as your regular force but is not capable of anything more then individual augmentation, we really gotta ask our selves if our own rules are hampering us.

 

[KevinB]

I mean, if we're looking for a regiment to do Vital Point security, where could we ever find one that already refers to themselves as "VP"?

arguably The RCR is very Canadian and so should be at home in the North albeit lacking chickens, they may have morale issues.

 

[markppcli]

ARes cant force generate because it really isnt designed to do so, we have it set up to do individual augmentation well, anything more is a struggle because of the rules we created. On paper the Regular force army is 22,000 give or take, and a ARes is 21,000. probably less then that given our retention issues, but i'm going off wikipedia. Now when you have a Reserve force almost the same size as your regular force but is not capable of anything more then individual augmentation, we really gotta ask our selves if our own rules are hampering us.

The ARes can’t reliably force generate because it’s a voluntary system. It really comes down to how appealing the task is, and I don’t imagine going roving patrols around the Cold Laken air field in January is going to get a lot of volunteers. Trying to form a company size organization is going to difficult when you need one of X, two of Y, and 7 of Z but your volunteers don’t line up to that.

This is of course then compounded by an inefficient organization that throws 80 odd UICs, BORs, and COs signatures to generate augmentees.

That being said we’re going to try to have two Force Protection platoons in Latvia. We’ll see how that goes, I knew guys in the reserves that didn’t deploy to Afghanistan because they felt those tasks were beneath them. Absolutely the extreme minority but I can see it being less that appealing and that makes the pitch difficult.

 

[daftandbarmy]

I mean, if we're looking for a regiment to do Vital Point security, where could we ever find one that already refers to themselves as "VP"?

 

[MilEME09]

The ARes can’t reliably force generate because it’s a voluntary system. It really comes down to how appealing the task is, and I don’t imagine going roving patrols around the Cold Laken air field in January is going to get a lot of volunteers. Trying to form a company size organization is going to difficult when you need one of X, two of Y, and 7 of Z but your volunteers don’t line up to that.

This is of course then compounded by an inefficient organization that throws 80 odd UICs, BORs, and COs signatures to generate augmentees.

That being said we’re going to try to have two Force Protection platoons in Latvia. We’ll see how that goes, I knew guys in the reserves that didn’t deploy to Afghanistan because they felt those tasks were beneath them. Absolutely the extreme minority but I can see it being less that appealing and that makes the pitch difficult.

exactly my point, our system is designed to fail us

 

[daftandbarmy]

That being said we’re going to try to have two Force Protection platoons in Latvia. We’ll see how that goes, I knew guys in the reserves that didn’t deploy to Afghanistan because they felt those tasks were beneath them. Absolutely the extreme minority but I can see it being less that appealing and that makes the pitch difficult.

Based on my experience as a guy who watched the Reserve's role play out over the whole AFG show, can confirm.

Because a reservist can pick and choose, all those Shitty Little Jobs that the Reg F don't want to do themselves - because they suck - rarely attract either enough people (or the best and brightest) regardless of how many gongs you want to hand out.

They also fail to develop alot of the skills you hope to see strengthened in your average 20 year old Combat Arms Corporal, or Lieutenant.

 

[markppcli]

Based on my experience as a guy who watched the Reserve's role play out over the whole AFG show, can confirm.

Because a reservist can pick and choose, all those Shitty Little Jobs that the Reg F don't want to do themselves - because they suck - rarely attract either enough people (or the best and brightest) regardless of how many gongs you want to hand out.

They also fail to develop alot of the skills you hope to see strengthened in your average 20 year old Combat Arms Corporal, or Lieutenant.

I deployed in a reserve force protection platoon. We had three on my tour: two out of KAF, and one in the PRT. In the PRT I spent a fair bit of my tour doing Foot and mounted patrols around Kandahar city while our s
my sister platoons were doing long convoy escort jobs. Between the long training period, and the tour, I can back as a much better Cpl. Point being that those who wouldn’t do a job that was beneath their own egos never deployed and never developed, then complained about not getting a tour. While it’s a shitty job, I don’t know that it was farmed out simply because the reg force didn’t want to do it, at the time were were sending a Bn, plus two companies between the OMLT and PRT. We had a need for another company of soldiers and I don’t know how else it could have been done. I think maintaining cohesion in the Bn slated for the BG probably made sense. Not to contradict the well developed sense of being hard done by the reserves love the wrap itself in.

exactly my point, our system is designed to fail us

Design implies intent, I don’t think the Army Reserve system displays any evidence of any kind of intent in its design.

 

[Kirkhill]

Based on my experience as a guy who watched the Reserve's role play out over the whole AFG show, can confirm.

Because a reservist can pick and choose, all those Shitty Little Jobs that the Reg F don't want to do themselves - because they suck - rarely attract either enough people (or the best and brightest) regardless of how many gongs you want to hand out.

They also fail to develop alot of the skills you hope to see strengthened in your average 20 year old Combat Arms Corporal, or Lieutenant.

So who does those Shitty Littlle Jobs on which the system depends?

I get Maintenance of Morale but when do we get around to Maintenance of the Aim?

 

[KevinB]

Gonna need more heavy airlift then...

Preposition

 

[dapaterson]

Preposition

I'm talking OUTCAN, not domestic, deployments.

 

[daftandbarmy]

So who does those Shitty Littlle Jobs on which the system depends?

Everyone shares all the tasks, both good and bad, as part of an integrated team of course.

Unless you have crappy leadership, then all bets are off

 

[Brad Sallows]

I'm not sure when you were last an 18-year old. It's been a long time since I've been one but I can still tell you that doing VP and comms and port and airfield defence up north would not have been my idea of a real job. Then, as now, I would have thought of it as a a crappy job the full-timers didn't want to do. I'd have gone NES pretty quickly.

Like having standby "companies" of soldiers for fire-fighting season, it strikes me as the sort of thing for which we could establish a task rather than a unit, and fill it with people on contracts.