RM to merge with Paras

[Seags98]

Interested to hear others thoughts on this.

Not meaning to put on my tin foil hat here but the constant cuts to the armed forces seem like a way of forcing them into an EU army.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5262121/Elite-paratrooper-Royal-Marine-units-MERGED.html

 

[Chelonian]

Interested to hear others thoughts on this.

It's almost an annual fixture, isn't it? The breathless media reports speculating about a merger. To be honest I can't recall a similar fuss being made when the Army Catering Corps was absorbed into the Royal Logistics Corps.

 

[Seags98]

It's almost an annual fixture, isn't it? The breathless media reports speculating about a merger. To be honest I can't recall a similar fuss being made when the Army Catering Corps was absorbed into the Royal Logistics Corps.

First I’ve heard of it, although that being said I only started following current events in the last year or so.

It is just speculation and comments from think tanks so very doubtful that it’ll happen but it is a scary thought that it was even considered an option in the first place.

 

[Chelonian]

It is just speculation and comments from think tanks so very doubtful that it’ll happen but it is a scary thought that it was even considered an option in the first place.

Inevitably when defence cuts are considered—almost annually—the option crops up. But the media always homes in on this one, ignoring other stuff which perhaps should be reviewed. For example, I seldom bet nowadays but I'd wager that the Household Division is probably immune from defence spending cuts because no Secretary of State for Defence would ever want to have that conversation with HM Queen.

 

[arny01]

I'd wager that the Household Division is probably immune from defence spending cuts because no Secretary of State for Defence would ever want to have that conversation with HM Queen

True!!

 

[ThreadpigeonsAlpha]

Interested to hear others thoughts on this.

Not meaning to put on my tin foil hat here but the constant cuts to the armed forces seem like a way of forcing them into an EU army.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5262121/Elite-paratrooper-Royal-Marine-units-MERGED.html

It’s a story that’s been going on for the past ten years. It’s probably more likely to be sh!t journalism to stir up reaction.

And the EU can ram it’s army right up its hoop.
I wander how it worked out last time we had a division of military directly under the command of a government that wasn’t democratically elected and couldn’t be voted out.... I think it was 1930s wasn’t it? That worked out well didn’t it...


While the two have similar mindsets, the training and role are different. One is shock troops designed to be dropped in, cause havoc and survive for 24hrs until the land forces linked to them (or if at all) the other is an amphibious raiding party used to capture a beachhead and cause havoc and provide a footholds enemy land.


This bit I found interesting though:

• Tory MPs have been up in arms at the prospect of deep cuts in the military

Very poor choice of words...

 

[Xerath]

For example, I seldom bet nowadays but I'd wager that the Household Division is probably immune from defence spending cuts because no Secretary of State for Defence would ever want to have that conversation with HM Queen.

It came close!

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/260752/Coldstream-guards-face-axe

The decision is said to have the reluctant blessing of Her Majesty the Queen, the regiment’s colonel-in-chief. The Army source said the royal household “wants to be seen to be doing its part” and accepts that the oldest regiments must carry their share of the burden of the cuts.

 

[DutyWretch]

Keeping the RAF reg (and of course currently going through the expense of the gender equality experiment), but downsizing our two finest and most well trained infantry units.


MOD logic not even once.

 

[Rover]

Salvation Army to be brought under the MOD.

This being due to the increase in Humanitarian Aid deployments by the military.

 

[cc1]

Keeping the RAF reg (and of course currently going through the expense of the gender equality experiment), but downsizing our two finest and most well trained infantry units.


MOD logic not even once.

The RAF Regt are currently entrenched in their own battle for survival. As much as we like to take the piss, they have a function and they do it well. It'll be a shame to see them go.

From my limited time working with them, they were, to a man, humble and top blokes. Whilst they're not fitting bayonets and posting HE into rooms, there are striking similarities with the Corps; both are seen as the unwieldy, expensive, nice-to-have by their parent services with their head perpetually on the chopping board.

 

[ThreadpigeonsAlpha]

The RAF Regt are currently entrenched in their own battle for survival. As much as we like to take the piss, they have a function and they do it well. It'll be a shame to see them go.

From my limited time working with them, they were, to a man, humble and top blokes. Whilst they're not fitting bayonets and posting HE into rooms, there are striking similarities with the Corps; both are seen as the unwieldy, expensive, nice-to-have by their parent services with their head perpetually on the chopping board.

Were you wearing your flashes at this point? They seem to quite down a lot when in a room with bootnecks and paras. A lot of the young lads have an absolute horrendous attitude. I have met some really good blokes.

But to be ruthless, they don’t have rapier as it was given to the Royal Artillery. The job they did in the last conflicts was that of the infantry.
The corps has a bigger air defence footprint then the RAF Regiment.

 

[cc1]

Were you wearing your flashes at this point? They seem to quite down a lot when in a room with bootnecks and paras. A lot of the young lads have an absolute horrendous attitude. I have met some really good blokes.

But to be ruthless, they don’t have rapier as it was given to the Royal Artillery. The job they did in the last conflicts was that of the infantry.
The corps has a bigger air defence footprint then the RAF Regiment.

I was a student when they ran me through the Force Protection module at Cranwell. I had a dagger on my arm. They were just generally good blokes, keen to learn and didn't use the opportunity of being "DS" to make my life hard.

It's true that the RA have Rapier, but Regt have taken CBRN and they also do Force Protection of airfields like KAF/BSN so I'd argue that the Corps having an 'AD' Det isn't that special...

As an Air Def lad once said: "If it flies fast, it flies past"

 

[Bellionaire679]

But Regt have taken CBRN

I've heard things through the grapevine a while ago that theyre giving that back to the army too.

I doubt they will get disbanded. They still offer Force Protection, Training and JTAC.

1 Squadron and 42 Commando did a joint exercise together the other week

 

[ThreadpigeonsAlpha]

I was a student when they ran me through the Force Protection module at Cranwell. I had a dagger on my arm. They were just generally good blokes, keen to learn and didn't use the opportunity of being "DS" to make my life hard.

It's true that the RA have Rapier, but Regt have taken CBRN and they also do Force Protection of airfields like KAF/BSN so I'd argue that the Corps having an 'AD' Det isn't that special...

As an Air Def lad once said: "If it flies fast, it flies past"

Force Protection is done by guins on the wire. The RAF Regiment are airfield Defence from the wire to the Army AO. And they don’t have rapier or the air defence capability that the corps does. All th air defence flights that had rapier were broken down into exsisting Ground Defence sqns. They don’t have starstreak, the Corps does.

Their defence is being an infantry footprint on the ground during the aircrafts vulnerable points of Take Off and Landing. Usually through vehicle patrols, but can do short foot patrols and the occasional eagle VCPs.
Don’t get me wrong, some good blokes and I have mates that are in the RAF Regt, but you can’t get round the fact they are just infantry.
They don’t offer much else in the way of specialisations, and what they do offer is very limited quantitie, a sqn being about the size of a Company. They don’t have a combat engineer aspect either. And 2 sqn are just deluded and think they are some kind of rogue Para Regt hoofing Unit. (The “real” 2 Para, apparently...)

But they have a lot of friends in high places and a lot of top cover. So we will never see them disbanded. CBRN is done tri service, as is JTAC.

The main points of contention with the RAF Regiment is the extending of the basic training to “32” weeks and the constant manipulation and mis information given out by recruiters about them being “like the marines”. Which was a quote from an RAF recruiter to a friend of mine who was going for a job in the Blue RAF.

It’s a constant quibble about trying to keep up, or be the “big three”. Instead of them just doing their job. Not to mention that god awful video of the guy going on about standing “toe to toe”.

Ideally I wouldn’t like to see any more units disbanded and what tatters of an armed force we have left, smashed even more and ripped apart but if it came to it, with the “big three”, they can absolutely do one.

 

[cc1]

The main points of contention with the RAF Regiment is the extending of the basic training to “32” weeks and the constant manipulation and mis information given out by recruiters about them being “like the marines”. Which was a quote from an RAF recruiter to a friend of mine who was going for a job in the Blue RAF.

It’s a constant quibble about trying to keep up, or be the “big three”. Instead of them just doing their job. Not to mention that god awful video of the guy going on about standing “toe to toe”.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I always thought we needed to be careful of the "big 3" mentality ourselves. It implies that we consider ourselves better than others which has never been part of the Corps mentality. Humility and all that...

The biggest compliment I took away from working with other services was that all went away raving about their time working with the Marines, our professionalism, how accommodating we were and how much they learnt during their time with the RM.

On the subject of the Marines merging with the Paras; it works [in principle]. Original Commando forces were a mish-mash of all capbadges, and it was due to the sheer number of headdresses on parade that they adopted the Commando Green Beret. It's proven effective at SFSG where they've completely integrated the two; and there's a good cross-pollenation of ideas, TTPs/SOPs, and best-practice. A lot of it has filtered into the wider Corps. You could also look at the US model and have an expeditionary Gp much akin to the Amphiborne 'Rangers' with a centralised budget and a separate hierarchy which would most likely fall under DSF as a support element.

There would be issues, but it can work.

 

[cc1]

Coincidentally 40Cdo and RAF Regt were on a joint CBRN exercise? Intelligence led perhaps?

 

[Ninja_Stoker]

Coincidentally 40Cdo and RAF Regt were on a joint CBRN exercise? Intelligence led perhaps?

Yep, I note the Skripal nerve agent incident appears to be undertaken by the Army ....according to the media.

Then again respirators and cbrn suits tend not to display unit identity and military means "Army" to the media.

 

[arny01]

I love it when people ask my lad "how's the Army going?"

 

[Cuzza22297]

I love it when people ask my lad "how's the Army going?"

Given up correcting my mates when they talk about me ‘joining the army’

 

[arny01]

Given up correcting my mates when they talk about me ‘joining the army’

If there's one thing that winds Royal up more I'd like to know??