Non-Jumping Paras and Scots Sharing Kilts

[Kirkhill]

And you lot think you have problems............

No jumps for Paras as MoD cuts £1bn
By Sean Rayment and Rob Watts, Sunday Telegraph

Last Updated: 1:28am GMT 17/12/2006

Parachute training in the Army is set to be halted for four years as part of a £1 billion cost-cutting programme by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/12/17/nparas17.xml

Scots troops must share their kilts

By Kate Devlin

Last Updated: 2:35am GMT 18/12/2006

Soldiers in Scotland's new "super regiment" have to share kilts because of a shortage of the ceremonial dress.

The Royal Regiment of Scotland has 5,000 soldiers but just 320 kilts, just one for every 15 men.  ......

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/12/18/nkilts18.xml

Just think of the hygiene issues....... "Ah'm no sharing mah kilt wi' onybuddy.  Hae' ye seen the mess Geordie made on the parade square whan he wuz fu', forbye?"

On the plus side I note that the MOD figures it will only take a year to recover the lost skills..... :

 

[Old Sweat]

Am I being cynical when I suggest that the majority of savings will be in the costs associated with Hercules flying hours, and that this will ease the strain on the air transport fleet? It will be interesting to see if parachute training does restart in 2012, or if someone declares the capability redundant?

No mention is made - probably because the reporter did not think about it - regarding the effect on parachuting by special forces.

 

[R933ex]

An "Official Response" is now located on the MND's webpage.

http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/DefencePolicyAndBusiness/DefenceNewsDaily.htm

 

[Kirkhill]

Thanks for that R933ex.

The Parachuting "neither confirm nor deny" doesn't entirely fill one with confidence though does it?

As to the kilts......wait and see.

 

[R933ex]

No problem Kirkhill,

And in the meantime it doesn't click to me (And I am not an expert here). It seems that if you drop that skillset for 4 years it would probably take longer then 1 year to get it back. Hopefully they won't loose it but then again, a Billion is a Billion.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Just think of the hygiene issues....... "Ah'm no sharing mah kilt wi' onybuddy.  Hae' ye seen the mess Geordie made on the parade square whan he wuz fu', forbye?"

Someone else who's read "The General Danced at Dawn"? 

 

[tomahawk6]

The Labor government continues to whittle away at Britain's defense establishment.Very sad to see.Socialism doesnt work and unless the UK and Europe move toward a US type economy the budget woes will only get worse.

 

[Danjanou]

Someone else who's read "The General Danced at Dawn"?   

Mandatory reading for anyone who's ever served in a kilted regiment. 8)

 

[Kirkhill]

Someone else who's read "The General Danced at Dawn"?   

The accent is the one my mother bequeathed me, honed by years of Burns and the Broons.  The anecdote (unfortunately) is drawn from a personal observation on parade (names changed to protect the guilty).  However I plead guilty to being a McAuslan fan - and yes it should be required reading.  ;D

And tomahawk6, couldn't agree with you more.  There is a considerable amount of speculation that some in the UK Treasury, up to and including Brown, have it in for the forces and have been allowed to get away with not supporting the effort necessary for Blair's foreign policy because of a bargain that he and Brown made to stay out of each other's business.  Talk about your dysfunctional government.

 

[The Rifleman]

the whole area of procurement in the British Army is a joke. We have even reintroduced a vehicle that first saw service on the West German Plain during the Cold war in the 60's - the FV 432! And that replaced the joke called the Saxon - an armoured 4 ton truck!

You Canadians are lucky with the Bison and Grizzly - you might moan but the LAV type of wagon is far superior to the aforementioned

 

[GO!!!]

It seems the brits are just as intent on gutting a useful capability as Canada was a decade ago.

I would be willing to bet that in four years, they will have such a critical shortage of Jumpmasters, riggers, aircrew and their associated skillsets, that it will cost millions to resurrect the capability, and that itself will be used as justification not to do it.

It will be just like the CFs well thought out plan to sell three useful helo platforms and replace them with one. Ten years later, we're trying to bring back a capability that never should have left us in the first place.

The worst part for us is that there is a distinct possiblity that someone in our government will take notice of this "precedent" and undertake similar lunacy here, especially with our desire to link ourselves more with Europe than our better allies to the south.

 

[The Rifleman]

"better" allies to the south? You must mean the Mexicans! 

 

[GO!!!]

"better" allies to the south? You must mean the Mexicans! 

No, I mean the ones we share a border with, who participate in numerous yearly training events, who have the best military equipment in the world and don't refer to citizens of this great nation as "colonials".

 

[tomahawk6]

;D
Well said.

 

[ArmyRick]

Cutting Para training? What the *&^%? It could be a costly decision should they need to jump into a hot spot in the next four years. Maybe reducing it would be a better compromise.

 

[The Rifleman]

Don't you think that "our Colonial Cousins" sounds good? Its not an insult - just an affectionate term.

As for the Septics - they do have some excellent kit - but the way they go about business in foreign lands does beg the question "do we copy them or do what is right?" I'm not anti US, far from it, just they don't have the common sense to operate with regard for human life.

I have operated with and trained alongside Canadian forces and believe me - you do not need to lower your standards to keep in with the folks down south!

 

[geo]

WRT the Kilts, the consolidation of many highland units has brought the creation of a new tartan.  The 350 they currently have are from a test run.  Am certain that members will continue to wear their "old" highland rig until such time as the new gear is delivered.

WRT paras & GO!!!s comments on the "cost cutting" we did in '90.... it was the peace dividend (silly).  The public figured that, with the dissapearance of the big bad red menace, they could spend their money elsewhere & the politicians listened... so we sold off our Chinooks & put an axe to our tactical air capabilities.

 

[Kirkhill]

Don't you think that "our Colonial Cousins" sounds good? Its not an insult - just an affectionate term.

As for the Septics - they do have some excellent kit - but the way they go about business in foreign lands does beg the question "do we copy them or do what is right?" I'm not anti US, far from it, just they don't have the common sense to operate with regard for human life.

I have operated with and trained alongside Canadian forces and believe me - you do not need to lower your standards to keep in with the folks down south!

Rifleman, I'm aware that for some folks life isn't complete without a pleasant bit of aggro but we do try and keep things civil round here. Comments about the "Septics" (Septic Tanks = Yanks, my old Ginger?) lacking common sense and lowering standards don't do much to keep the discussion on track.

I gather that a lot of people have a lot of different opinions on how best to conduct operations.  We appear to have those differences in spades within our own infantry Corps amongst those that see the solution in the armoured soldier, those that see it in the infantry (light infantry as it now seems to be known since the armoured infanteer is apparently true infantry), and those that see it in the special forces.  Myself, I am guessing that all capabilities are needed.  The problems lie with those that are making those capabilities available (the politicians) and those that are employing/mis-applying them (senior management).

I look forward to hearing more from you but it would help if you could "mind the tone" a bit. 

Cheers.

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

Don't you think that "our Colonial Cousins" sounds good? Its not an insult - just an affectionate term.

As for the Septics - they do have some excellent kit - but the way they go about business in foreign lands does beg the question "do we copy them or do what is right?" I'm not anti US, far from it, just they don't have the common sense to operate with regard for human life.

I have operated with and trained alongside Canadian forces and believe me - you do not need to lower your standards to keep in with the folks down south!

Moderator Post,

Actually Rifleman, I will officially tell you to tone it down, that's not the way we operate around army.ca.

 

[The Rifleman]

Sorry - just telling it how I see it - I will  conform