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Divining the right role, capabilities, structure, and Regimental System for Canada's Army Reserves

  • Thread starter Thread starter Yard Ape
  • Start date Start date
No, there would be 0 benefit to either party there. Not only are there simply not enough to fill that, the training and qualification requirements are such that spreading them out all across the country would make keeping them qualified virtually impossible.
Copy.

Make the transition from CBG= Canadian Brigade Group; a wholly fictional brigade made up of paper regiments to:CRBG = Canadian Reserve Battalion Group, A RegF led Unit fully accountable to take the PRes personnel in their catchment area, organize, train and deliver something that looks a lot like a light battlegroup. Any CBG where the "Regiments" are consistently in the platoon+ to Company- range maps over very well.
Perhaps not use size-linked terminology at all? Call it a militia district / regional HQ and depot / whatever: avoids anyone getting ideas about how the thing should behave based on the name alone.
 
Copy.


Perhaps not use size-linked terminology at all? Call it a militia district / regional HQ and depot / whatever: avoids anyone getting ideas about how the thing should behave based on the name alone.
Militia Districts are so 1980’s…

The problem with a non specific name is one can see how the CA acts even with a specific name for those formations.
 
Perhaps not use size-linked terminology at all? Call it a militia district / regional HQ and depot / whatever: avoids anyone getting ideas about how the thing should behave based on the name alone.
Again, ignorant outsider, but I think that will lead to more of the same. No one should be left to get ideas on how the thing should behave, because what it is and how it should be behave should be defined, and someone should be accountable for delivering that.
Design an attainable, replicable, and functional unit templates(s), assess the existing CBG's and their catchment areas and their ability to deliver, and divide/amalgamate, eliminate as needed.

I see two basic Bn size taskings for CBG's
those Co-located with a regF Bde- provide a 3rd Bn, + gun battery, armoured squadron, engineer squadron, augments for a parent bde
those not - generate deployable artic/domestic light BG's
 
Militia Districts are so 1980’s…

The problem with a non specific name is one can see how the CA acts even with a specific name for those formations.
Not so much non-specific as specifically not a manoeuvre formation name.

Army Reserve Regional Training / Support Depot (Pacific), say, would be about as force-generator as you can get, says what it's supposed to do on the tin, doesn't encourage the CO to wander off on non-core tasks or get distracted by (assuming this isn't desired) trying to maintain a deployable field HQ for a formed combat brigade, and doesn't cap, even conceptually, unit size below it (there's enough people on the lower mainland that there could, with a will, be a number of real battalions over there). Chop, forevermore, everything that isn't training to full-time brigades and the domestic Joint HQs: JTF Pac, JRCC, CJOC, etc.
 
Perhaps not use size-linked terminology at all? Call it a militia district / regional HQ and depot / whatever: avoids anyone getting ideas about how the thing should behave based on the name alone.
No, needs to be organized in unit / sub unit terms. These should be seen as operational units who are capable of generating deployable sub units and also able to provide the basis of a Bn sized unit. In my fever dreams of the CAF those deployable sub units and be formed as a Bn under the regular force Bde. Something in the lines of:

3 Can Div:
1 CMBG:
  • 1 PPCLI
  • 2 PPCLI
  • LdSH
  • 1 RCHA
  • 1 Svc Bn
  • 1 CER
  • 3 Bn RCIC
3 CBG
  • 38th Bn RCIC
  • 39th Bn RCIC
  • 41sr Bn RCIC
  • 3rd Regiment RCAC
  • 3 CER
  • 3rd Regiment, RCA
  • 3 Svc Bn

3 Bn RCIC would be a skeleton crew able to accept 1 coy from each of the 3 CBG Bns, 3rd RCAC would be tasked to support LdSH with Cav Tps and crew replacements for Leopards (Edmonton based Sqn). Similarly the Artillery folks would be focused on flushing out the 1 RCHA batteries first. 3 CBG is a force generating Bde reporting directly to 3 Div on its ability firstly to fill those tasks. 3 Svc Bn would be almost entirely an administrative Bn HQ mostly concerned with ensuring training and career development of dets all over the Div AO, I see it functioning almost like a standards organization ensuring everyone is on the same page.
 
A force-generating formation is a "district". At least a lot of other armies think/thought so. Districts produce operational elements but are not themselves one.
 
A force-generating formation is a "district". At least a lot of other armies think/thought so. Districts produce operational elements but are not themselves one.
Outside of Russia who employs districts as a military formation?
 

They're more of a geographically defined administrative unit, kind of like our Divisions, than a military formation.

Also, as I recall, their HQ set ups are full of the castaways and awkwards squads of various line units and brigades. Trying to get anything done though SE District was like trying to capture Stalingrad with a plastic KFS set ;)
 
Seems like their more responsible for the buildings and barracks than the actual units from wiki

Yes, and some of the training areas and ranges. They also have a role managing the TA and Cadets that we never really understood, or I didn't at any rate.

Force generation is usually managed through the operational brigades.
 
I just remember that it was when the name changed to "brigade" that the fun folks at 4050 W 4th Ave in Vancouver really started to exceed their limitations. "District" has a nice mundane not-a-battle-formation-so-stop-trying-to-be-one ring about it.
 
I just remember that it was when the name changed to "brigade" that the fun folks at 4050 W 4th Ave in Vancouver really started to exceed their limitations. "District" has a nice mundane not-a-battle-formation-so-stop-trying-to-be-one ring about it.

Exactly... an A Res CBG Commander is not a Brigade Commander, ironically. Their G staff are not G1, 3, 4s etc either; not by a long shot ;)
 
You and I are close to violent agreement but not quite
This becomes the problem. What is the end state?

I would suggest that the end state be that the reserves can independently force generate a deployable sub unit and a push and reliably generate sub sub units.
Absolutely agree on this.
Doesn’t mean they will, but that’s the largest group that’s ever deployed independently (CRIC for Bosnia 2003), but that is a realistic and attainable goal. So what does that mean ? Well we need Force generators that can assess sub sub units, ie Bn / Regiments, and that are manned to provide them, ie they need to encompass a catchment area that can reliable provide their sub units a full compliment.
Absolutely agree again.
We need those Bn / Reg HQs to be fully staffed to manage the training of these sub units, and not just a skeleton crew sat around because there has to be a CO. It also means we need to be serious about the selection of these COs and their staffs, as opposed to who’s the oldest officer in the mess.
We probably diverge a bit here. IMHO these COs need to be RegF as does most of their staff. (Please note I do not consider ClassBs to be a viable entity except as temporary replacements for RegF - a unit has a combination of full-time positions - i.e. RegF PYs and part-time positions - i.e. Class As.) IMHO each of these battalion HQs (and by that term I include armoured, arty and engineer regiments) must be capable of being fully deployable.

As a further provision, each of these battalions must have at least one fully equipped RegF sub-unit. The purpose of this sub-unit is to be a fully trained and deployable as any other RegF sub-unit is now. It also provides an anchor around which the battalion revolves, and provides expertise and equipment to help train the ResF subunits. This is the reason I call these units 30/70 but again, the percentages are approximate and vary depending on the type of unit.

Secondly there would be two or three ResF sub-units each of which has a RegF core that reports to the Bn HQ. I tend to call these 10/90 units but the percentage is arbitrary and could vary from as low as 5% to maybe 20% depending on the needs of the sub-unit. this RegF core should include a Coy Comd, a CSM, a CQ (WO), a storeman, a Chief Clerk (Sgt) and a fin clerk as a minimum. Additional RegF PYs might be necessary for sub-units with complex equipment requiring maintenance or other tech skills. All other positions to complete a full establishment are Class A. The purpose of the core is to a) train its Class As; b) form a core around which a sub-unit can be stood up either by volunteers from its own Class As or others from across the region or by way of compulsory mobilization of its own Class As; and to train with the Bn during the Bn's RegF training

Thirdly there would be a HQ Company appropriate for the type of Bn it is and with a mixture of RegF and Class A personnel so as to properly support the RegF component and its equipment day-to-day and to train its own Class A to fully round out the company on mobilization.

This probably means each reserve CBG becomes essentially a Bn, probably holding a mixed bag of sub units (this is fine plenty of other militaries do this), and the Divisions end up with a reserve Bde, now made up of 3-5 properly manned units each with a goal of generating sub units, a piece.
We diverge a bit here. IMHO, the CBGs and RSS disappear entirely. Their RegF staff are reassigned to a) probably 2 or 3 additional deployable manoeuvre brigade and 2 additional support brigade headquarters and the 10% elements of the 10/90 sub-units.

Each of the RegF brigades is retained but also transformed into hybrid ones. I see heavy brigades as 30/70; mech brigades as one of 30/70 and one of 70/30; and light brigades of 70/30 to 100/0 (all ratios are RegF/ResF)

Each of the manoeuvre brigades is organized identically to the existing 1, 2 and 5 brigades as either armoured, mech or light. The support brigades are organized as an artillery brigade, a sustainment brigade and what used to be called a Manoeuvre Enhancement Brigade and which is now called a Protection Brigade. (I'm toying with the idea as to whether or not an Engineer Brigade should exist or whether the CERs should be distributed)

Each existing ResF unit (Inf bn, armd regt, arty regt, Engr regt) devolves into a Class A sub-unit assigned to core battalions (this may involve amalgamation of multiple weak units into a single sub-unit). Sigs and Medics and MPs devolve into Bde signals squadrons, field ambulances and MP platoons as well as one divisional sigs bn, one field hospital and one MP battalion. 21 EW stays as is. CAIR is tightened up. 4 ESR becomes a 70/30 unit. 4 RCA (GS) becomes a 30/70 unit. RegF and ResF service bns are reorganized to support, in appropriate RegF/ResF ratios, the manoeuvre brigades and create, in addition, a divisional sustainment brigade made up of a 30/70 maint battalion, a 30/70 supply battalion and two 10/90 Tn battalions

Edit to add this is something I see are primarily a Armoured and Infantry thing. Reserve artillery should be built around adding guns / troops to existing regiments first and foremost. I’m not familiar enough with the engineers to really comment intelligently on how they should function.
This I don't agree with. I see artillery in exactly the same way as inf and armour. A core arty regt HQ mostly RegF, a single 100/0 6-gun battery, 2 or 3 10/90 6-gun batteries, a 100/0 FOO Bty and a 30/70 STA battery

Just as a summary. The intent of the above is to create more deployable brigade and unit headquarters to a) ease the burden of rotations and b) form a core around which a force larger than 3 brigades can be raised. At the same time the structure retains existing 100/0 RegF sub-units which are capable of a high level of readiness. Any of the infantry battalions could thus deploy to Latvia with its own single company and a slice of battalion support or on another operation with either a 100/0 company or two from another battalion (if rapid reaction is needed) or its own 10/90 companies filled out by Class C volunteers (if time for predeployment training permits). In many ways our battle groups deploying to Afghanistan were generally an amalgamation of the RegF battalions within the brigade augmented by ResF members.

Overall, the system provides better leadership, access to equipment and training to reservists while expanding the Army's flexibility and capability.

🍻
 
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You and I are close to violent agreement but not quite

Absolutely agree on this.

Absolutely agree again.

We probably diverge a bit here. IMHO these COs need to be RegF as does most of their staff. (Please note I do not consider ClassBs to be a viable entity except as temporary replacements for RegF - a unit has a combination of full-time positions - i.e. RegF PYs and part-time positions - i.e. Class As.) IMHO each of these battalion HQs (and by that term I include armoured, arty and engineer regiments) must be capable of being fully deployable.

As a further provision, each of these battalions must have at least one fully equipped RegF sub-unit. The purpose of this sub-unit is to be a fully trained and deployable as any other RegF sub-unit is now. It also provides an anchor around which the battalion revolves, and provides expertise and equipment to help train the ResF subunits. This is the reason I call these units 30/70 but again, the percentages are approximate and vary depending on the type of unit.

Secondly there would be two or three ResF sub-units each of which has a RegF core that reports to the Bn HQ. I tend to call these 10/90 units but the percentage is arbitrary and could vary from as low as 5% to maybe 20% depending on the needs of the sub-unit. this RegF core should include a Coy Comd, a CSM, a CQ (WO), a storeman, a Chief Clerk (Sgt) and a fin clerk as a minimum. Additional RegF PYs might be necessary for sub-units with complex equipment requiring maintenance or other tech skills. All other positions to complete a full establishment are Class A. The purpose of the core is to a) train its Class As; b) form a core around which a sub-unit can be stood up either by volunteers from its own Class As or others from across the region or by way of compulsory mobilization of its own Class As; and to train with the Bn during the Bn's RegF training

Thirdly there would be a HQ Company appropriate for the type of Bn it is and with a mixture of RegF and Class A personnel so as to properly support the RegF component and its equipment day-to-day and to train its own Class A to fully round out the company on mobilization.


We diverge a bit here. IMHO, the CBGs and RSS disappear entirely. Their RegF staff are reassigned to a) probably 2 or 3 additional deployable manoeuvre brigade and 2 additional support brigade headquarters and the 10% elements of the 10/90 sub-units.

Each of the RegF brigades is retained but also transformed into hybrid ones. I see heavy brigades as 30/70; mech brigades as one of 30/70 and one of 70/30; and light brigades of 70/30 to 100/0 (all ratios are RegF/ResF)

Each of the manoeuvre brigades is organized identically to the existing 1, 2 and 5 brigades as either armoured, mech or light. The support brigades are organized as an artillery brigade, a sustainment brigade and what used to be called a Manoeuvre Enhancement Brigade and which is now called a Protection Brigade. (I'm toying with the idea as to whether or not an Engineer Brigade should exist or whether the CERs should be distributed)

Each existing ResF unit (Inf bn, armd regt, arty regt, Engr regt) devolves into a Class A sub-unit assigned to core battalions (this may involve amalgamation of multiple weak units into a single sub-unit). Sigs and Medics and MPs devolve into Bde signals squadrons, field ambulances and MP platoons as well as one divisional sigs bn, one field hospital and one MP battalion. 21 EW stays as is. CAIR is tightened up. 4 ESR becomes a 70/30 unit. 4 RCA (GS) becomes a 30/70 unit. RegF and ResF service bns are reorganized to support, in appropriate RegF/ResF ratios, the manoeuvre brigades and create, in addition, a divisional sustainment brigade made up of a 30/70 maint battalion, a 30/70 supply battalion and two 10/90 Tn battalions


This I don't agree with. I see artillery in exactly the same way as inf and armour. A core arty regt HQ mostly RegF, a single 100/0 6-gun battery, 2 or 3 10/90 6-gun batteries, a 100/0 FOO Bty and a 30/70 STA battery

Just as a summary. The intent of the above is to create more deployable brigade and unit headquarters to a) ease the burden of rotations and b) form a core around which a force larger than 3 brigades can be raised. At the same time the structure retains existing 100/0 RegF sub-units which are capable of a high level of readiness. Any of the infantry battalions could thus deploy to Latvia with its own single company and a slice of battalion support or on another operation with either a 100/0 company or two from another battalion (if rapid reaction is needed) or its own 10/90 companies filled out by Class C volunteers (if time for predeployment training permits). In many ways our battle groups deploying to Afghanistan were generally an amalgamation of the RegF battalions within the brigade augmented by ResF members.

Overall, the system provides better leadership, access to equipment and training to reservists while expanding the Army's flexibility and capability.

🍻
Fundamentally our divergence stems from if we can have reservists forced to deploy or not. I don’t ever see that happening so I think the deployable units need to be 100/0 at least on paper.
 
Lots of moving little green army men all over the sand box here.

What's the plan for the Svc Support and Sigs Support units and personnel ?
 
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