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On 28 April 2009, the UK MoD published a Strategic Review of the UK's
Reserve Forces which has looked at how the Reserves can be better
organised, trained, equipped and supported.
The review, which has been the first ever focused specifically on UK
Reserves, produced seven central findings, including improving training,
creating clearer command structures and increasing the use of individual
reservists' skills. These seven recommendations break down into 80 more
detailed recommendations.
The seven recommendations of the review are:
1. In future the Reserve is likely to be needed for augmentation as much
as for maximum effort, and be used more effectively to connect with the
nation.
2. Defence should consider how best to adjust the balance of liability,
roles and readiness within and between the Reserve and Regular Forces.
Defence should also establish a mechanism to maximise delivery of niche
capabilities across the Reserve.
3. Training is pivotal to the proposition. The delivery of training
should be overhauled to make it more relevant, consistent and correctly
resourced.
4. Command and control, principally in the Territorial Army, should be
clearer to deliver the necessary purpose, greater flexibility of use,
and better integration.
5. The volunteer estate should be modernised and (strategically)
rationalised to improve its strategic management and design its 21st
century footprint.
6. Defence should accept the proposition for the Reserve and acknowledge
its current fragility in certain areas.
7. Defence should review Terms and Conditions of Service, removing
complexity and administrative barriers between the Reserve and Regulars.
In the future the Territorial Army will be better integrated with the
Regular Army and this will ensure that the Army, both Regular and
Reserve, will be more capable of supporting ongoing and future
operations.
The MoD believes that a number of posts within TA signals units which
were formed to operate equipment have now become obsolete. These posts
will now be removed and include Headquarters 12 Signals Group and 33, 34
and 35 Signals Regiments. The report states that it makes sense to
reallocate resources from these posts to higher defence priorities. In
all, we believe that the reduction in Royal Signals units will affect
about 2,000 reservists.
A major innovation will be that Initial training will be restructured to
enable TA recruits to take part in collective training with regular army
units six months after joining. The MoD also plans to give reservists’
employers more notice of deployment of their staff.
Most analysts believe that it will take some considerable time (years
rather than months) to implement all of the recommendations of the
report.
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