Hmmmm an interesting issue that unfortunately raises more questions than I'm sure anybody has answers for. But my first point would be
Doesn't every generation of serviceman think the RAF/Army/Navy etc is going to hell in a handcart?
Yes CG, I think you're right about that - and it's not just confined to the Armed Forces. However, in this case, I do think that ForwardAssist has a very valid point - we are going to hell in a handcart. Actually I think we're almost there - it's the next exit just after Bliar-town and Buffoon-ville.
Whilst not exactly an old timer, I have been in for 7 years and the drop in everything connected with the military - other than our output has been quicker than a slapper's drawers on a Friday night in Peterhead (not that I have any experience of that point).
1. We can no longer do anything that costs more than we can scrape together from the loose change down the back of the sofa.
2. Any form of fun that 20 years ago would have been described as building team spirit or morale is instantly spread over pages 1-12 of those items that can only be described as 'newspapers' in the loosest sense of the word (even my dog now objects to the Mirror and Sun in his dog basket), having mortally offended some 57 year old do-gooder called Norman from Little Snoring on the Wold.
3. We have a morally bankrupt government that doesn't give a damn about the armed forces, even though we are used in all sorts of roles from steely-eyed dealers of death (what we're supposed to do), to firemen, nannies, politically correct adverts for HMG's questionable 'inclusivity' policies and instruments of Tony's attempt to get the Nobel Prize for hypocracy (what we're not supposed to do).
4. We have a procurement system that leaves me gasping for breath and incandescent with rage at it's sheer general uselessness and incompetence coupled, which is often coupled with point 3 and HMG's moral vacuum that refuses to get rid of organisations that can't provide the goods because it might cost a few votes here and there. The end result being that we go off on ops without the kit we are supposed to have or if we are lucky with defective kit - albeit not enough of it.
5. We have a bunch of airships that by and large appear to be weaker than a soggy kit-kat, who are unwilling to stand up to the politicians and defend the interests of the service and the people underneath them; just because it might get them the sack or they won't get their next stripe or their 'K'. Where are the Dowdings of today who are prepared to stand up and tell the politicians no, this can't be done and trying to force it through will end in disaster. Well I've had a good hard look, and as far as I can see, the last one was the Navy-chappy Boyce who was CDS a few years back who was asked to leave early becuase he stood up for what he believed in. Back bone???? Not something the current lot appear to have heard much about - or that's the way it appears from my end of the trench.
6. We have got to the point that the RAF has been contracted out so much, that we are losing the can-do spirit to be replaced by can-do, as long as it isn't between 1000-1030, 1500-1530 or after 1615 (1530 on Fridays); won't stop me going on leave even though there is a war on; I can still get my round of golf in every Tuesday afternoon and nobody writes anything nasty about my being an oxygen thief on my annual civil service report. Civilianizing has meant that so much of our service ethos has gone for good that if we ever tried to get it back, we'd fail dismally only finding it dead under a pile of red tape, petty bureacracy and cost cutting measures.
And to my mind, this list of woe has it's roots in one place and one place only - the concept of treating the Armed Forces like it is a business. Whilst I'm all for financial responsibility, we have gone way too far and given the accountants and management consultants way too much sway. The really annoying thing is, we pay millions each year to employ these people and the end result of their £5.3M cost saving study is that they tell us we can't afford to pay their fees, so we'll just have to axe another hospital/ship/sqn/regiment
This all stems from having things (I won't use the term leaders
) that have never served and cannot see the damage they have done to the forces by treating them like a business.
We do not operate in a world of profit and loss, instead our books balance when the same number of aircraft/tanks/people come home from a deployment that went out, having been successful in their mission. Defence is inherently expensive but it's output is often intangible - what do the politicians have to show for pumping billions our way each year. We would probably all point out that sleeping safe in your beds and watching your kids grow up happy and safe are probably tangible enough benefits of what we do, but that isn't enough for the politicians. They want that and they want everything else that goes with trying to buy the electorate - yes we have noticed Mr Bliar, and no we're not stupid.
So how do you fix it? Well I have to say that right now, we're bollocksed. I don't think we can fix it for the current generation. It has been said that we need to fail, to show them that we can't do everything with nothing, and then hopefully we'll get some cash. Whilst I see the logic, my personal pride will not allow me to that - not if there is a chance that I can do what I need to do successfully, no matter how meager the resources given to me to do it. Of course if I fail unintentionally, then that's a different matter. I think we need to make people realise that we are not a business and that you can't measure what we do in terms of profit and loss, and the sooner the airships (and tankships and ermm shipships??) force this point through so much the better. When they succeed there, we might get the accountants off our backs, which might ease the pressure a little to stop doing everything with nothing until you disappear in an ever decreasing circle up your own arse. I also think that part of the job specs for PM/ SoS Def should have been a spell in the forces, including time on ops, so they do actually appreciate what we are about and what the impact of slowly bleeding us to death is.
Alternatively, we call their bluffs - issue shares in the RAF and then sack the board of directors!!!!!!
