Chief of defence staff warns over military expectations

[Sun Who]

This is interesting from a couple of perspectives I think:

BBC News - Chief of defence staff warns over military expectations

Sun.

[Bigpants]

Political expectations?

Politicians not likely to heed this and I suspect there are still many ambitious senior officers in MOD of various hues quite happy to say can do.

They then send squaddies off to patrol the next hot spot in a Landrover or to send leaky Nimrods airborne or to under estimate the air support needed etc etc

[ralphmalph]

Gen Jackson made the biggest faux pays by gobbing off after he had left.

Gen Dannatt spoke his mind....as a straight bloke...he has my respect after fighting battles; he could have really expected to ignore and retire....why make life difficult in your last few years?

How many people start getting excited about stuff at the end of their career?

IMHO it is in vogue to now say what is wrong and voice it publicly.....

Then when its goes tits because of a politician.....the military are bombproof.

Nothing more than a political line in the sand....will make not a jot to the next 5 years of ops!.... I reckon.

[Pontius Navigator]

RM, while they only appear to gob off after retiring, maybe they were as outspoken before that but forbore to comment in public as that is not how we are supposed to operate?

[kintyred]

RM You obviously never saw Dannatt's interview on Dispatches where he recalled telling the then CAS ACM Torpy that there was no way he was letting blue jobs fly battlefield helicopters as "I want helicopters flown by soldiers". If there was a more parochial, backward thinking, viewpoint I've yet to see it. Anyway it saving the UK armed forces from having to have that daft Blackhawk thing and gave us "Future" Lynx instead, even if it did cost an extra 2bn.

[Agaricus bisporus]

Strikes me that soldiers flying battlefield helos is the biggest no-brainer going. People who instinctively know and understand the environment, can communicate & integrate readily with ground forces and aren't subject to inter services rivalry, 5* hotels and general nfi when it comes to field conditions. Failing that, put the junglies in charge if you want to get the job done, but why not let the Army do it themselves?

[kintyred]

AB Put your willy away. Who on earth do you think flies RAF BH? Read the London Gazette from time to time!

[Pontius Navigator]

I think I know where AH is coming from. Would light blue be better flying Apache?

[kintyred]

My point was that it really doesn't matter who flies the helicopters (although I really think an aviation specialist is the most important qualification) rather that we lost the chance to get some good kit for our soldiers because of Dannatt's insistence on AAC pilots (Blackhawk was too complex for Army Engineering apparently.....don't shoot, I'm only the messenger). Not only that, it has cost the taxpayer an extra 2bn to have this less capable kit. Dannatt then compounded the mistake he made by airing his interservice rivalry in public. That makes him, for my money, not a particularly clever bloke.....which was what I tried to point out to RM

[Pontius Navigator]

Good points well made.

[ExAscoteer]

General Houghton has said nothing that Sir Anthony Farrar-Hockley didn't say 30 years ago!