Guest Editorial
Colonel Dave Harris – Colonel REME Reserves REME – A Whole Force? D
uring November, I tend to reflect on the sacrifice of others and remember our fallen or injured comrades. As part of that act of remembrance, I find myself reading military history, often surprised to realise the different types of people that have given everything to the service of their country, whether military or civilian. This tells me that it’s not just us in the military that will stand up and serve our nation. Due to this, I’ve decided to base this article on the Whole Force, but firstly, what do I mean by this? Well back in 2011, the UK Government (UKG) commissioned an independent Defence Reform Review chaired by Lord Levene where, among others, he recommended the development across defence of a Whole Force Concept (WFC), consisting of Regulars, Reserves, Civil Servants and contractors, which would then create a more cost effective and balanced work force from which to deliver defence outputs. This concept or force construct model is nothing new, looking back in history, we can see that part time soldiers, civilians and contractors have supported the British Army throughout many of its operations, examples include the Peninsula war in the early 1800s and the Crimean war later in 1853. Similarly, UK industry supported the war effort during World Wars 1 and 2, alongside Regulars, Reserves and civilians. More recently, a Whole Force was also represented on Ops TELIC & HERRICK.
So why raise the WFC now? When the UKG delivered its latest Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) in 2021, commonly known as the Integrated Review (IR), the MOD responded with Defence in a Competitive Age (DCA), reaffirming its intent to transform defence’s workforce, this time through a Whole Force Approach (WFA). The British Army’s response in turn to DCA is Future
4 craftsmaneditor@reme-rhq.org.uk
Soldier, where it states its intention to operate as a more integrated Whole Force, aiming to do this by transforming the Army Reserve (AR) and by resetting its relationship with industry, through the Land Industry Strategy. A Whole Force by Design, it will integrate the AR into Regular structures, operating as one force and aiming to foster collaboration with industries leading in cutting edge technologies and delivering our platforms of the future. This could also potentially include the provision of subject matter experts through the further development of the Sponsored Reserve (SR), whereby selected industry partners provide capability on a contractual basis. Examples within our Corps already include the Power Pack repair SR platoon provided by Babcock DSG.
So how can we in the REME ensure that the WFA within Future Soldier is a success? As with any transformational process, there will be critical factors that influence how quickly or effectively change can occur, for the REME, I believe these to be; leadership, organisational culture and employee engagement. Leadership is key and forms the foundation from which the other two factors can be addressed. As a result of Future Soldier, we now have a clear direction and strategy for that change,
