The 'Hollow Army' and the .COM dilemma [a split & merged thread]

[observor 69]

AFGHANISTAN MISSION
Brian Stewart
LINK
Military brass bite their tongues over the 'hollow army'
Why generals may be playing down the exhaustion of the Canadian army
Brian Stewart, CBC News

It is an extraordinary testament to the resilience of Canadian troops that they've been able to conceal how much this country's combat forces have been exhausted by years of war in Afghanistan.

The refusal of the military to acknowledge the weariness means Canadians are unaware that the exhaustion of the combat mission is far worse than it has appeared. It's a fighting mission, we need to remind ourselves, that will continue for another 2½ years (until the end of 2011).

Other allies have not been so silent about the drain of fighting Taliban in Afghanistan's southern provinces. British counterparts there, by comparison, frequently go to the mass media with complaints about lack of weapons and equipment, inadequate and overstressed forces, even poor tactics.

Here, only Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie, the head of Canada's army, has said enough to raise eyebrows. He insisted in the spring that his troops will need a year's rest after Afghanistan, along with replacement of worn-out equipment.

It's known within military circles that Leslie is far more concerned about the state of the army than he's admitted publicly. And so are his immediate superiors, including Gen. Walt Natynczyk, chief of the defence staff.

'The hollow army'
While preparing a recent documentary about Natynczyk for The National, I was able to obtain a leaked internal military report on the state of the forces, signed by Leslie. The report actually refers to "the hollow army."

The restricted report, circulated several months ago only within the uppermost levels of the Defence Department, points out the current efficiencies in all branches of the military. Its most searing conclusion is that the army "is now operating beyond its capacity."

"The war in Afghanistan," the report warns, "illustrates deficiencies in the army and the Canadian Forces."

More at link.

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

Its most searing conclusion is that the army "is now operating beyond its capacity."

Gee, that's a new one. :boring:

 

[TCBF]

AFGHANISTAN MISSION
Brian Stewart
LINK
.... 
"The war in Afghanistan," the report warns, "illustrates deficiencies in the army and the Canadian Forces."

More at link.

- What deficiencies? 

- But, since we are in the mood to jawbone things, how about a few RADICAL ideas:

1.  fix the Mil Medical, Mil Legal, and Recruiting and Selection system that either cannot or will not tighten up Recruiting and retention standards to include more aggressive screening for pre-existing med and psych conditions or allow the expedient and hasty release of those culled by the current lax standards.  A drain on scarce resources and a blight on morale.
2.  A career system which would allow more Reg F pers to escape the clutches of their current UIC's (the ones who claim they cannot spare anyone for tours), thus allowing the Res F to stop 'eating their seed corn' and slow down and train a new generation of 16 year olds.
3.  Retention: The 'Remuster' system has to be reconstituted.  Hire a recruit for TWO trades.  First trade Cbt A.  Give him his course date for his tech trade the day he grads his Cbt A qual crse!  (NOT before). Must do three years good service after gradding Cbt A trades trg before the remuster. Must still be fit remuster FitCat and MedCat.
4. Postings: Gaining CO's to have access to PERS and Medical files prior to the postings and can refuse postings in.
5. Releases:  Allow by the Commanding Officer, not Ottawa. 
6. Recruiting: two weeks at a Mil Dist Manning Depot (insert modern PC organizational buzzword here).  Medicals, physicals, psychs, PT. Have a good look at them. 
7. Recruit Trg; Close St-Jean.  Open CFRS in Valcartier and Dundurn.
8. Careers: Introduce a flexible system where trades can borrow or loan pers to fill posns without the req to denote them ATR. Done now on a minor scale.
9. Stop rank-creep in positions by attaching the rank to the position, not the career.  You get the position, you get the rank - not before.  You lose the position, you lose the rank.  Pay stays within a given field and increases by incentive level. 
10. CO's promote in their units.  CO's demote in their units. 
11. Class B. Eliminate.  Drains the reserves of needed talent.  Transfer to Reg F. Transfer back when not needed (Note that presently the MND can transfer a Reg F member to the P Res WITHOUT the members agreement...). Class B should not be the Regional Economic Assistance Plan it presently is.
12. Compete for ppostings and positions. Introduce Fitness Catagories along with Medical Catagories.  Each posting or CFTPO comes with a Fit Cat and a Med Cat minimum.  If yours is better than the others or the incumbent - you get the position.
13. Keep the pay incentives to Cpl, but sew on rank ONLY upon grad of ldsp crses. LCpl for grads og JNCO/JLC/CLC/PLQ, etc. Cpl and MCpl through competition.  Do similar for officer ranks.  2Lt, etc., until certain trg gateways complete (professional, NOT educational), no promotion for ANY ranks strictly through time in. 

- Anyone want to list point number 14 and carry on?

 

[observor 69]

A terrible thought that has been running through my mind lately:
We are going to come out of Afghanistan with burnt out personnel and burnt out/worn equipment.
A Liberal government gets elected and attempts to deal with the national debt built up in stimulating the economy during the recession.
The military budget, as usual in Canada, gets slashed and the only tasking we can handle is a small UN peacekeeping mission.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

 

[TCBF]

A terrible thought that has been running through my mind lately:
We are going to come out of Afghanistan with burnt out personnel and burnt out/worn equipment.
A Liberal government gets elected and attempts to deal with the national debt built up in stimulating the economy during the recession.
The military budget, as usual in Canada, gets slashed and the only tasking we can handle is a small UN peacekeeping mission.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

- Burnt out personnel?  A myth.

 

[daftandbarmy]

And, of course, history shows us that the best way to rebuild tired armies is to focus on people, not kit:


Transforming An Army: Military Leadership and Military Transformation in the British and Indian Armies

“Although both Montgomery and Slim exhibited different leadership styles, both agreed on one thing: they believed that the way to transform their own fighting forces into effective soldiers who could best their opponents in battle was not obtaining more material, but to focus on the basic elements of doctrine, training and morale in their respective commands.”

http://www.mindef.gov.sg/imindef/publications/pointer/cdfessay/past/02merit2005.html

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Not sure how it is now, but Class B was used within the reserve unit to provide organic manpower for tasks such as RQMS, Veh tech, RHQ staff. It seems what you are talking about is more in line with Class C if it still exist.

 

[dapaterson]

Following funding devolutions and responsibility devolutions, everyone and their dog (or, in the cast of certain units, goat) is hiring class B reservists for backfill across the spectrum.

Literally thousands across the CF, in places like CFRCs, schools, HQs, base support... you name it, you'll find Reservists there.  Indeed, if you count all the full-time Reservists you'll find the number is over 10% of the Regular Force trained effective strength.  Toss in class C (deployed operations, plus some crew of MCDVs for the Navy, and a handful in other domestic positions) and you're looking at even more.

The current situtaion re: employing full-time Reservists is an out of control monster that few in positions of authority have any desire to temper.  Instead, they continue to use full-time Reservists as a way to circumvent Reg F manning limits.  So, rather than ever saying "No, that's a stupid idea" or "To do X, we will stop doing Y", we spend more funds on full-time Reservists.

This storm has been brewing for a long time; it's going to hit hard and be damaging to the CF as an institution once its impact is fulyl felt.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Following funding devolutions and responsibility devolutions, everyone and their dog (or, in the cast of certain units, goat) is hiring class B reservists for backfill across the spectrum.

Literally thousands across the CF, in places like CFRCs, schools, HQs, base support... you name it, you'll find Reservists there.  Indeed, if you count all the full-time Reservists you'll find the number is over 10% of the Regular Force trained effective strength.  Toss in class C (deployed operations, plus some crew of MCDVs for the Navy, and a handful in other domestic positions) and you're looking at even more.

The current situtaion re: employing full-time Reservists is an out of control monster that few in positions of authority have any desire to temper.  Instead, they continue to use full-time Reservists as a way to circumvent Reg F manning limits.  So, rather than ever saying "No, that's a stupid idea" or "To do X, we will stop doing Y", we spend more funds on full-time Reservists.

This storm has been brewing for a long time; it's going to hit hard and be damaging to the CF as an institution once its impact is fulyl felt.

And of course the problem is that they (there's those darned 'they' people again) drag them away from reserve units where they should be managing internal to unit issues, and post them to schools etc to fill up gaps there. The Class A net then has to try and take the extra strain, with predictable results. It's come to the point where units are 'lucky' if they have medically downgraded reg staff attached, just to push the normal paper load.

Unfortunately, the units are rarely farther ahead as a result of these 'extra' class B positions.

 

[CBH99]

-  Just adding to the list of ways we could maximize our dollars and minimize our waste, and hopefully become more efficient at filling in the gaps.  Streamline equipment procurement so that we are getting proven equipment that is already in production, rather than waiting years for industry to come up with something.  Many suggestions have already been mentioned by other members of this board, such as giving industry a heads up so that industry can better respond to our needs when we open a competition and defining exactly what capabilities we want beforehand.  If we were to streamline our equipment procurement so that we minimized the amount of money we wasted and maximized the timing by getting equipment that has actually made it off the drawing board - we could make a lot of progress.  (In my personal opinion, ofcourse.)

 

[Haggis]

Literally thousands across the CF, in places like CFRCs, schools, HQs, base support... you name it, you'll find Reservists there.  Indeed, if you count all the full-time Reservists you'll find the number is over 10% of the Regular Force trained effective strength.  Toss in class C (deployed operations, plus some crew of MCDVs for the Navy, and a handful in other domestic positions) and you're looking at even more.

There are, on average, about 9,000 Reservists on some type of full time service in 2009.

Instead, they continue to use full-time Reservists as a way to circumvent Reg F manning limits.

To staff all the required Reg F establishment positions to the PML with Reg F members would put even more strain on an already strained system, on both sides of the Reg/Res fence.

So, rather than ever saying "No, that's a stupid idea" or "To do X, we will stop doing Y", we spend more funds on full-time Reservists.

And the Res F is partly to blame in this regard as they always "step up to the plate".

Not sure how it is now, but Class B was used within the reserve unit to provide organic manpower for tasks such as RQMS, Veh tech, RHQ staff.

And these positions are in many cases, Reg F positions.

Units are desperately short of Regular Force Cadre (RFC, the old "RSS") and those who do have them invariably lose them before a full 3 year posting is done.

Reg F members posted to Reserve units, particularly Army units, find themselves with a tempo as least as high as their deployed counterparts.  Most will be required to work most, if not all, summers and many weekends.  (Yes, CTO compensates for some of this.)  Many RFC members are "broken" or healing and are not getting the break they need (and expect?) while in a Reserve unit.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Maybe offer the RSS positions to released senior personal who can comeback on full status but as reserves, without fear of being sent overseas. It would be nice that some of the Class B were in the unit so they could carry out a lot of tasks themselves. When we were an "Ops tasked battery" we had a fulltime RQMS and a vehicle Tech, along with the RHQ positions and RSS staff. It worked well. perhaps then the Militia could maintain more of it's own kit. What I found frustrating was being sent for 6 weeks for a course when 50% of that time was wasted. The concept of value for money was somewhat wasted on the army of the 80's.

 

[OldSolduer]

Here in the Winnipeg Infantry Tac Group, we have a full time Adjt (Cl B), full time Ops staff (Capt, WO and a Sgt) all Reg Force PPCLI. In addition, we have a full time Coy 2 I/C, Tpt Sgt, CQ & staff, all Cl B.
We're doing pretty well.

 

[George Wallace]

I think that this is a well written article, and something that had to be said.  Unfortunately, who is listening?  The Public really isn't.  The Politicians aren't.  The Mandarins in the CS aren't.  Members of the CF may be, but what real say do they have to effect the necessary changes, if Treasury Board doesn't approve?

SALY SS-DP

 

[dapaterson]

To staff all the required Reg F establishment positions to the PML with Reg F members would put even more strain on an already strained system, on both sides of the Reg/Res fence.

Ah - but "required" is not true.  There are many useless Reg F positions, but all are somebody's pet, so they cannot be reduced.  (ahem Startop road ahem).  Project management positions - no one reigns in ADM(Mat) or ADM(IM) and tells them "Project X is running five years late.  So choose: either can project X, or defer project Y for two years until people will be available."  We're unwilling to discipline the systems.

We've permitted "leaders" to get away with never making hard decisions - if they can't choose between options that would require making unpopular choices, well, just do both - and hire Reservists to circumvent the Reg F manning ceiling.  Want a bunch of new command HQs?  Just grab Reg F expansion positions to create them (without a personnel system that can produce the people you want, today or ever) then round it out with a bunch more full-time Reserve positions.  Never make hard choices that have to be made for the future sustainability of the institution.  And couch it all in your "Aw shucks I'm just an everyday Newf" spiel.

On the plus side, you will get those "Leading Change" bubbles filled out on your PER.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Getting additional funding from outside of DND to fund some more fulltime positions in Reserve units for say 2 years, might be sellable to everyone, it would work better if the funds were directed to hard hit regions. We did similar with the Summer Youth Employment Program in the 80's, but I would rather it focused more on the people that are already in, have some training and help the unit move forward. Unit CO's in the selected areas could produce some sort of proposal for extra staff in their unit showing some net gain for the unit, persons hired and region. Say like hiring a W.O. to setup unit training courses or write the material. Send some selected people to take advanced courses in modern warfighting technologies and run course back home.

Haggis
DFO does the same, they used Capital funds to pay O&M costs to avoid the political costs of shutting down things like hatcheries or other feel good stuff. In fact most branches of the Government are at fault to one extent or the other in this regard.

 

[McG]

Ah - but "required" is not true.  There are many useless Reg F positions ...

What we need is a dispassionate review of military positions.  Which ones are required?  Which ones are helpful but we could survive without?  Which ones are entirely superfluous?  Could any be better performed by civilians (I suspect many of the ADM(Mat) PMPRs could be better staffed with SWE)?  Are there any redundant organizations?

… and I still believe that NDHQ would be significantly more efficient if it were all in one city in a single building (or at least on a single campus of a few buildings).

 

[TCBF]

- So, if the above figure of 9,000 full-time Reservists is in the ballpark, add that to the (also ballpark) strength of 62,000 in the Reg F, we have 71,000 full-time positions manned.

- When I joined Regular in 76, we were at 74,000 to 78,000 full time.  Given that what we have full time in KAF is about what we had in CFE back then (more ballparks!), when you take into account the closure of the Pinetree Line, we are at about the same strength as in the mid seventies. 

- So, as I said, What Burnout?

 

[dapaterson]

Some differences:

The BTL (folks not qualified DP1) was smaller back then; and
There's a few minor differences between serving in KAF and serving in Germany (for one thing, the beer's nowhere near as plentiful, nor are the Tide boxes as easily seen).

 

[George Wallace]

4 CMBG was roughly 5000.  The Air Wing was what, another 1000, max?

There were 16,000 Dependents roughly in Lahr.

There were four Brigades in the Army.

There were roughly twice the current number of Air Force Sqns and Bases. 

There were 128 tanks, with an Armour Regiment of three Tank Sqns fully equiped and trained and a School fully equiped to train.  Similarly Artillery and Engineer Units were also fully equiped and trained, as were their Schools. 

Gone are the 128 tanks.  Now we have twenty.
Gone are the M109s.  Now we have a few M777.
Gone are most of the Mech Engr equipment.

The Infantry have not faired as well either, although the LAV III is a leap forward for them.

In 1976 there was only Cyprus.  Today we have Afghanistan.  In between we've had Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Rwanda, Haiti, etc.