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British Military Current Events

The Black Mafia?

And some of them will go to that level of 'commitment' for promotion too :)

Nickname(s)"The Black Mafia"


I find it interesting to watch the drift towards 'Speshul-ness', no doubt as a regimental survival instinct, as the Black Mafia drift into 'Green Beret' territory, the Guards cozy up with the Airborne, and the Royal Marines adopt the mantle of 'Tesco's SBS'.

I don't see this as a good thing, of course, because if you get too 'special' you start to suck at the unique and tremendously difficult 'general' things that the Infantry is often called upon to do.
 
And some of them will go to that level of 'commitment' for promotion too :)

Nickname(s)"The Black Mafia"


I find it interesting to watch the drift towards 'Speshul-ness', no doubt as a regimental survival instinct, as the Black Mafia drift into 'Green Beret' territory, the Guards cozy up with the Airborne, and the Royal Marines adopt the mantle of 'Tesco's SBS'.

I don't see this as a good thing, of course, because if you get too 'special' you start to suck at the unique and tremendously difficult 'general' things that the Infantry is often called upon to do.

Thanks. And I agree with your comments about special but would just point out that both Fusiliers and Rifles were special in their day and only lost their specialness when the rest of the army joined them as fusiliers (Brown Bess 1715) and rifles (Enfield 1853).

I don't think the infantry is losing its general utility. If anything I think the biggest problem lies with the Armoured Corps and the Cavalry. Once every infanteer has their own ride, or robot, then you end up with units like this with 16 Air Assault BCT

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Aka "Rangers"
 
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And that's pretty much all she wrote.
 

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One thing that does come through on this - radical shifts while conducting operations do not seem to be beyond the capabilities of the Brits.

Role on Force 2025/2030/2050
 
Just to add some of the other tools in the toolkit (from wiki)


The following units are part of UK Special Forces and UK Special Forces (Reserve).

Royal Navy[edit]​

British Army[edit]​

Royal Air Force[edit]​

Joint service units[edit]​

  • Special Forces Support Group[3]
    • A Company
    • B Company
    • C Company
    • D Company
    • F Company
    • G Company
    • Support Company
  • 18 Signal Regiment[40]
    • SBS Signal Squadron
    • 264 (SAS) Signal Squadron
    • 267 (SRR) Signal Squadron
    • 268 (SFSG) Signal Squadron
    • 63 (SAS) Signal Squadron (Reserve)

Joint Special Forces Aviation Wing[edit]​

 
And here's a link to the Royal Marines

 
That's what I was looking for before we got into the diversion with that infantry division nonsense. To me this is the heart of the organizational structure. Incidentally thanks for posting these pages. I now have it with the link Blackadder provided. Thanks BA.

A lot of this looks like ideas we've been playing with on our napkins. The missions and roles are similar to what Canada actually wants to be (based on SSE) but can't seem to articulate in the way of force structures. I might just get back to napkinizing a bit - maybe get rid of another one of those pesky division HQ. I'm still convinced that a 30/70 - 70/30 structure would serve us well to optimize the Army.

🍻
 
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To be fair, the Sealous Scouts could be characterized as one of the first BIPOC units ;)

Officer fury over new Army regiment's 'racist' cap badge that is 'identical' to those worn by brutal apartheid terror squad who fought black insurgents and killed civilians in 1960s and 70s​

  • The Ranger Regiment's new beret has been compared to the Selous Scouts
  • Apartheid squad fought to keep white-minority rule over what is now Zimbabwe, fighting black insurgents and was accused of killing civilians
  • Officers in the newly-formed regiment have raised concerns about similarities over the badges which both feature birds of prey
  • The Ministry of Defence said the comparisons were 'completely inaccurate'
 
Have now scanned this a bit more and find the artillery dispositions interesting.

1) In 3 (UK) Div neither the 12th nor 20th ABCT's have any integral close support artillery at all.

2) all of 3 (UK) Divs artillery is concentrated in 1 DRSBCT (a total of 2 Reg F and 1 Res F self propelled close support regiments; 2 Reg F and 1 Res F MLRS regiments and 1 Reg F STA regiment). This is actually a good mix and appears to be a revival of the divisional artillery concept. For me the question that remains is how the artillery C&C structure will function seeing as the guns subordinated into a recce manoeuvre brigade rather than an artillery one.

3) In 1 (UK) Div, 7 LMBCT has one Reg F and 1 Res F L118 regiment;

4) also in 1 (UK) Div, 4 LBCT has only one Res F L 118 regiment;

5) (Just as an aside, 19 Brigade is organized to 8 Res F light infantry battalions and 2 Res F light recce regiments which are not otherwise allocated to other formations. (basically a reserve pool)

6) 7 Air Defence group contains 2 Reg F and 1 Res F air defence regiments;

7) 16 Air Assault BCT has one Reg F para L118 regiment;

8) the Intel, Surv and Recce group (basically a total force intelligence org) has one Reg F MUAS arty regiment and one Reg F TUAS arty regiment;

9) 3 Cdo Bde retains one Reg F Commando L118 regiment

A key factor is that every Res F arty unit has a defined role to add batteries to Reg F regiments (somewhat of a 70/30 structure, albeit some Reg F regiments-the more quick reaction ones-are 100/0 and one Res F regiment in 4 LBCT has a 0/100 role)

I generally like this. One comment is that perhaps 3 (UK) could have done with a larger Res F to Reg F ratio but I expect the current allocation speaks to the fact that the UK considers the NATO role there a quick reaction/short notice one in large part.

The purpose of the general duties pool of inf and recce in 19 Brigade speaks somewhat of homeland security aided and abetted by cap badge protection.

I love the 101 & 102 Operational Sustainment Brigades (and their total force mix) - we need that desperately.

I also find it interesting that engineer resources for both 1 and 3 (UK) Divs are centralized in two Engr Bdes.

🍻
 
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