The background

New structures, roles, terms and conditions of service and basing for the Army Reserve will be announced in Spring 2013. A consultation paper, launched in November 2012 and running to January 2013, called for views on the future of the Reserves.

It will report in Spring 2013 having consulted widely on the anticipated changes in the relationships between Defence and the Reserves and with the employers of Reservists.

 

The FR20 measures - what they will mean for you

£1.2bn is being invested by the Army between now and 2020 in the FR20 measures to support the delivery of a fully manned Army Reserve by 2018. These measures include investment in:

• Training
• Equipment
• Sports
• Transfer from Regular to Reserve Service
• Personnel
• Infrastructure

 

Training

Overseas Exercises (OTX). New OTX for the Army Reserves have been planned and a number have already taken place. The OTX programme will be ongoing over the coming years. These are largely at sub-unit level (Company and Squadron) in places such as: Canada, Cyprus, Macedonia, Nigeria, the USA, Kenya, Germany, Italy and Denmark. The Yeomanry will be conducting an integration exercise with the Bundeswehr (the German Army) in Germany in 2013.

Training with the Regular Army. A number of training exercises have been set up to develop the integration between Regular and Reserve soldiers that will be critical to the development of the Whole Force. These exercises will be taking place during 2013.

 

Equipment

Vehicles:

RWIMIK. RWIMIK is a lightly armoured, highly mobile fire support and force protection Land Rover, crewed by 3 soldiers with multiple weapons configurations eg General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG) and Heavy Machine Gun (HMG). Delivery to all Army Reserve Yeomanry Regiments (RY, RMLY, QOY and RWY) started in October 2012. All 80 vehicles will be delivered to the Yeomanry by December 2013.

WOLF Land Rover. Just under 800 WOLF Land Rovers are already being delivered to the Army Reserves and all 800 vehicles will be issued by December 2012.

MAN Support Vehicle (SV). Just over 900 MAN SVs are already being delivered to theArmy Reserves and all 900 will be issued by March 2013.

Personal:

Dismounted Close Combat (DCC) equipment. The DCC package includes a range of weapons systems along with night vision goggles, weapons sights, weapons ancillaries and body armour. It will be issued to the Reserves on the same basis as it is to the Regular Army. No timetable for delivery of the DCC programme has been given as yet.

Personal Clothing System (PCS) Combat Uniform (CU). PCS CU is the new multi-terrain pattern combat uniform worn by the Army which will be issued to all Reserves between September 2012 and March 2013.

 

Sports

Fitness Equipment. Fitness equipment will be delivered to 291 Army Reserves locations to further enable collective Physical Training (PT). The equipment is mainly free weights so that people can be trained together in groups, rather than individual fitness equipment like running machines. This programme will be complete by March 2013.

Sports Adminstration. An additional 7 working days are being given to the individuals who administer approved Army Reserve sports. This will enable them to spend more time organising Army Reserve sporting activities so that the Army Reserves can benefit from the available team sporting opportunities.

 

Transfer from Regular to Reserve Service

The process of transferring from the Regular Army to the Army Reserve has been streamlined making it easier to transfer on completion of Regular Service. Thousands of soldiers leave the Regular Army every year (thousands join too!) and they are encouraged to join the Army Reserves on leaving Regular Service. Defence Information Notices (DINs) have been issued which provide more information to those leaving the Regular Army about how they can transfer to the Army Reserve: Officers – 2012DIN01-018: Soldiers – 2012DIN01-155. Download these from ArmyNET via the link in the right-hand panel.

 

Personnel

Review of Terms and Conditions of Service (TACOS). A fundamental review of Reserves TACOS, designed to confirm what is required to support the new integrated force, is being carried out and is scheduled to report in Spring 2013.

Liaison Officers in Recruiting Offices. There are now 106 Army Reserve experts in Recruiting Offices and a further 75 are being recruited from the Army Reserve to help you understand the opportunities in the Army Reserves when you visit your local Recruiting Office.

Selection for Service. There is now a Common Selection process to ensure both Regulars and Reserves are recruited at the same standard.

Regimental Operational Support Warrant Officers (ROSWO). ROSWOs are being introduced across the Army Reserve to support the Regimental Operational Support Officers (ROSO) in all Army Reserve units. They have responsibility for recruiting, retention, welfare and employer support and are there to ensure that you are even better supported when you deploy on operations.

Access to Standard Learning Credits (SLC) for TA personnel. The SLC is an amount of money given annually to support personal development plans with MOD approved professional development qualifications. It is currently planned to extend SLC availability to Army Reserves in 2014.

Introduction of Command Leadership and Management (CLM) training into the Reserves. CLM is professional development training. CLM training is a promotion requirement for Regular Army soldiers promoting to Corporal, Sergeant and Warrant Officer. The training is in 3 stages. Stages 1 and 2 can be delivered within the soldier’s unit and Stage 3 is a three week package delivered at an Education Centre. It is currently planned to introduce CLM training in an appropriate format into the Army Reserves in 2014.

 

Infrastructure

£4m will be spent improving the fabric of Army Reserve Centres between now and April 2013.

Read and comment on Reserves Consultation Green Paper:

The Secretary of State for Defence Philip Hammond has announced the launch of this public consultation on the future of the UK's Reserve Forces. The consultation exercise will consider what changes are required to the Reserves Forces in order to generate and sustain the numbers and capabilities we need from them to meet our defence requirements. Key areas of the paper are:

• How we will use Reserve Forces in the future
• The offer for employers
• The offer for Reservists

The Ministry of Defence will consider all feedback received and use it to inform policy.

Commander Land Forces, General Sir Nick Parker KCB CBE, said

"One of the main planks of our Transformation is the need to integrate our Regular and Reserve components. This is a big change which will require more reservists to be available to train and deploy on a much more routine and frequent basis, even for non-operational tasks. As our implementation plans are developed it is becoming clear that this is entirely practical, indeed recent operational experience shows that we are already able to integrate in the most challenging of environments. However, we need to develop a very different relationship with Society and crucially with employers. This Green Paper consultation process provides the chance for everyone involved to contribute and ensure their voice is heard."

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2012 TA Continuous Attitude Survey (TAS CAS)

• Live on ArmyNET on 1 Nov 12 (closes 7 Jan 13)
• Needs an ArmyNET account
• Paper version inside November edition of ARQ (for illustration purposes but can be used by those without ArmyNET access)
• Takes only 10 minutes to complete (in duty time)
• DCLF writing to all COs
• Max response needed to inform FR20 and Green Paper
• Report to be sidely circulated in Jan 13 (and displayed on the Common Operating Picture (COP) site)

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