Human Security Centre Human Rights and International Security Research
The Human Security Centre (HSC) is pleased to announce that the House of Commons Defence Select Committee has published the evidence submitted by Senior Fellow Dr Rowan Allport on the subject of how the UK’s Strategic Defence and Security Review will impact upon the British Army.
You can read the full evidence on the website of the UK parliament.
Executive Summary
- Army 2020 envisaged a land force that was sized, structured, equipped and postured to engage in similar operations to those Britain has mounted since the end of the Cold War, but with a limited capacity for countering highly capable state-based opponents.
- Many unanswered questions remain regarding the deployable land force envisaged by SDSR 2015’s Joint Force 2025. Whilst deliverable in its most basic form under current resource constraints, the resultant force will still have many of Army 2020’s key weaknesses.
- The Army, as foreseen under Joint Force 2025, will require significant qualitative improvements if it is to deliver a genuine near full-spectrum capability at up to division level. This is unlikely to be possible within current financial constraints, but options are available should more resources be allocated.
Conclusion
- The Army outlined under SDSR 2015’s Joint Force 2025 represents a significant advance over the Army 2020 model. We assess that both force structure and deployability projections are realistic. It should prove possible to form the basic elements of the force outlined by internally reallocating existing resources.
- However, most of the deeper issues with regards to high-intensity operations against state-based opponents that are a feature of Army 2020 will still be present in the successor concept. Additional resources will be required to rectify this situation.
Photo: MoD/Crown copyright 2014 (Link)
