Sorry man.
Me being obtuse again.
My sense of the situation is that in a Reserve capacity one of the first responsibilities of the command is maintenance of its assigned assets. Therefore the Maintenance element should be properly manned as a priority - and probably with full time personnel. Now whether they are civvies providing service "out of the line of fire" or people that are willing to do the job while being shot at and what the relative ratios are is a point that provides for hours of interesting debate here and elsewhere.
The next grouping essentially provides a flying squad for the local command element that can be despatched easily in the area to tackle short notice emergencies - and not necessarily shooting emergencies. A deployable comms element, a significant transport capability and an ability to assist the police by conducting patrols and recconnaissance during a Highwood flood, as well as an engineering group to permit small scale mobility problems to be solved with pontoons, rope bridges and zodiacs seem to me to be a useful amalgamation capabilities that would be useful both in civil emergencies and in military situations.
The artillery and the infantry are interesting to me.
In war the infantry will sustain the brunt of the casualties and the artillery will inflict them. In peace neither one of their skills are in particularly high demand. Their primary advantage to the government is they provide a pool of trained, disciplined, organized manpower that can be tapped to provide local security, or riot forces, or help old ladies and their dogs off of roofs.
In war, or when fighting the government is going to be happier inflicting casualties than having them inflicted. Equally, in war, the deployed regulars will be looking for a thickening of the gun lines. Consequently, in war, I can see that the first units available in a reserve area that will be called to arms are likely to be the gunners.
The next units, in war, would likely be the flying squad troops for line of communications duties.
The third group of units would then be the infantry - initially assigned to base security and, along with the armoured and transport troops, assigned to convoy protection duties. At least until acclimatized at which point they would start making up the developing gaps in the reg forces' ranks.
In peace the gunners are the least utilitarian troops when considered in their primary trade. In war they are likely to be in greatest demand.
Maintenance troops are in demand in peace and war (may be moreso in peace).
Mobile troops, with or without weapons, can always find a role (but they don't always need a LAV or a TAPV to make a difference - often 5 tonnes, Pickups, Jeeps and vehicles like the Bv206 are all that are needed, and deployable).
The infantry, as described by Pvt Pook, Sugar Coy, 1 Para - remain Her Majesty's Odd Job Men. Capable of filling any gaps in any plan where manpower is required.
Cheers.
