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

[quadrapiper]

Few idle thoughts.

How many Reserve armouries are spoken for as far as local or regional emergency plans, etc.? Not something that should be funded by the PRes, but perhaps something that some other Ministry or level of government should be asked to throw some cash at, with the "stick" being that an armoury built to produce battalions for WWI but now housing an overstrength platoon might otherwise be divested/demolished.

As relates to the "requires long term training" Reg Force bits of kit/roles, how many of those need to be maintained in battalion+ strength in a single location? Are there any Reg Force capabilities that usually deploy/operate as a company/platoon, and could be split up and moved, with all their equipment, into Reserve facilities that house Reserve units with the same or complementary roles? Noting that that one would cost a fortune, initially.

How much use is made of non-DND lands for training? Why aren't, for (pulled out of the air) example, the CScotR, 5th Field, and the service battalion routinely thrashing around in Vancouver Island's basically limitless supply of mountains, trees, and logging roads? I know I've seen the occasional MilCOTS out in the sticks - how much more can be done?

Should there be a conscious grouping of reservists in a given area to "home guard/civil defense/warm bodies for sandbag filling," "retention of former Regulars," "augmentees in waiting," and "unit enabler" roles? Setting aside the question of areas with multiple units, re-focus RHQ on an enabler role; no expectation that anyone there will necessarily deploy or command in combat; and build sub-units around those various roles, perhaps. This reinvisioned RHQ might also assume responsibility for some multi-unit training facilities/events based on geography.

Perhaps look at reshuffling training, appointments, and promotions: determine what rank you could reasonably train a reservist to in each trade, and, as much as is reasonable, ensure that anyone who stays around and has the aptitude will work their way up the training ladder, regardless of rank - link that to unit strength, not promoting beyond a certain point (perhaps MCpl or Sgt and Capt?) unless there's actually enough bodies on parade to merit it.

Vigorously demote until the PRes officer and MWO/CWO cadre matches what's on parade. Perhaps look at a "command allowance" if you've got (for example) a Captain or WO as CO and "RSM" respectively in isolation from other units.

 

[Kirkhill]

....
Personally, I'd rather see the Reg Force units fully manned, rather than cutting their numbers and sending more PYs to the Reserve. Also, would those positions be for full time positions within a Reserve unit or just be another Class A position?

Actually I was wondering if all the Reg Force Units need to be fully manned throughout their training/readiness cycle and if all of their positions have to  be full time positions.

For instance, when a Unit is going into its High Readiness Cycle couldn't it be topped up by some of those recently trained 12 week Reservists?

When the Unit comes off High Readiness then some of the regs stay with the unit as cadre, some disappear to schools as students or instructors, and some may even be tasked to daughter reserve units.  Meanwhile the Reserves go back to their homes to get on with their Civvy lives parading 1 night, 2 days and 2 weeks.

When the Unit cycles back to High Readiness the family of Regs reforms, and it again gets topped up by some freshly trained privates.

 

[Kirkhill]

Funny extrapolation or the Danish Homeguard data to the Canadian Militia.

Homeguard - Active 15,808
Homeguard - Reserve 30,843
Danish Homeguard 46,651
Danish Population 5,627,235
Participation Rate 0.8%

Militia - Active 100,296
Militia - Reserve 195,687
Canadian Militia 295,983
Canadian Population 35,702,707
Participation Rate 0.8%

Active means actively parading and training Weekends and Wednesdays.  The reserve is considered to be those ex-active members that are trained but no longer parading.

In both the Canadian and Danish cases the Regular army and Reserves are over and above these numbers (50,500 Cdn Army).

These active numbers of 100,296 represent the labour force available at Zero Cost, augmented by a comparable Canadian training budget of some 600 MCAD annually.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Funny extrapolation or the Danish Homeguard data to the Canadian Militia.

Homeguard - Active 15,808
Homeguard - Reserve 30,843
Danish Homeguard 46,651
Danish Population 5,627,235
Participation Rate 0.8%

Militia - Active 100,296
Militia - Reserve 195,687
Canadian Militia 295,983
Canadian Population 35,702,707
Participation Rate 0.8%

Active means actively parading and training Weekends and Wednesdays.  The reserve is considered to be those ex-active members that are trained but no longer parading.

In both the Canadian and Danish cases the Regular army and Reserves are over and above these numbers (50,500 Cdn Army).

These active numbers of 100,296 represent the labour force available at Zero Cost, augmented by a comparable Canadian training budget of some 600 MCAD annually.

By Jove! There's a good article in there somewhere my good man.  :nod:

 

[MilEME09]

Actually I was wondering if all the Reg Force Units need to be fully manned throughout their training/readiness cycle and if all of their positions have to  be full time positions.

For instance, when a Unit is going into its High Readiness Cycle couldn't it be topped up by some of those recently trained 12 week Reservists?

When the Unit comes off High Readiness then some of the regs stay with the unit as cadre, some disappear to schools as students or instructors, and some may even be tasked to daughter reserve units.  Meanwhile the Reserves go back to their homes to get on with their Civvy lives parading 1 night, 2 days and 2 weeks.

When the Unit cycles back to High Readiness the family of Regs reforms, and it again gets topped up by some freshly trained privates.

Great idea, but we would also need job protection to be greater for reservists so they have civi jobs to come back to if they aren't some kid out of high school or university

 

[TCBF]

Actually I was wondering if all the Reg Force Units need to be fully manned throughout their training/readiness cycle and if all of their positions have to  be full time positions.

For instance, when a Unit is going into its High Readiness Cycle couldn't it be topped up by some of those recently trained 12 week Reservists?

When the Unit comes off High Readiness then some of the regs stay with the unit as cadre, some disappear to schools as students or instructors, and some may even be tasked to daughter reserve units.  Meanwhile the Reserves go back to their homes to get on with their Civvy lives parading 1 night, 2 days and 2 weeks.

When the Unit cycles back to High Readiness the family of Regs reforms, and it again gets topped up by some freshly trained privates.

- When I was SSM Recce Sqn, our soldier shortage impinged on our ability to move our echelon, as well as degraded our ISTAR capacity. We lacked the right pers qual to drive the right vehs at the right time, and crew commanders need a formal qual as well these days.

- Perhaps you should compare WE (War Establishment) with Peacetime Establishment. Our PE is close to 50% as it is, and our deployment ORBATs not much better once HLTA cuts in. Cutting more? Maybe it is time to cut a brigade?

 

[Harrigan]

How much use is made of non-DND lands for training? Why aren't, for (pulled out of the air) example, the CScotR, 5th Field, and the service battalion routinely thrashing around in Vancouver Island's basically limitless supply of mountains, trees, and logging roads? I know I've seen the occasional MilCOTS out in the sticks - how much more can be done?

It can be done, but there is significant administrative effort to use non-DND land for training, including the not inconsiderable requirement to put everything back to its former state at the end of it all.  Depending on region, the lead times can be quite lengthy to do proper notification for landowners, media heads-up, etc.  It is nothing that is impossible to accomplish, though.  Sometimes there is great value to train in an unfamiliar environment.

Harrigan

 

[George Wallace]

It can be done, but there is significant administrative effort to use non-DND land for training, including the not inconsiderable requirement to put everything back to its former state at the end of it all.  Depending on region, the lead times can be quite lengthy to do proper notification for landowners, media heads-up, etc.  It is nothing that is impossible to accomplish, though.  Sometimes there is great value to train in an unfamiliar environment.

Harrigan

It is actually done all the time.  Both Regular Force and Reserves regularly conduct exercises on Public lands.  In the case of the Reserves, they do not have a large Training Area as do the Regular Force Brigades, so they must often conduct their Exercises on Public lands.  Remember though, that as noted above, it is a tremendous amount of planning and administration to conduct any large sized Exercise, no matter the location.  These facts restrict the number of such Exercises that may be conducted in a Training Year.

 

[Harris]

We normally do at least one per year on public lands.  As mentioned above it is a lot of work.  One exercise involved over 200 land clearance forms be signed. (We learned not to do that again).

 

[Eaglelord17]

Personally, I'd rather see the Reg Force units fully manned, rather than cutting their numbers and sending more PYs to the Reserve. Also, would those positions be for full time positions within a Reserve unit or just be another Class A position?

It costs significantly less to have Reservists then Reg Force troops. For example a when I was a Pte. in the Reserves even taking as much taskings and such as I could, I still only made 13,000$ a year, vs. a Reg Force Pte. who is making roughly 3-4 times the same amount and sitting around a good portion of the day (I know what happens in the Regs, I have been there).

And when you take Reservist and Reg Force and put them together in the field, there actually isn't too much of a difference because it isn't like the time that Reservists aren't training the Reg Force is in the field training. One of the best examples is the Arty units in the Reserves. They have the same level of training and in a fair number of cases have more critical courses as they get run through them quicker due to the fact people are constantly releasing from the Reserves.

Another point is if war is getting to be too 'technical' and the quality of equipment is getting to difficult to learn on, how long do we feel we could sustain such technology in a actual war. The Reserves are more a sustain measure then a quick reaction force (which is basically the main reason we have a large Reg force, a carry back from the Cold War when we needed to run troops across the Atlantic to Germany/Norway to fight the Soviets). If we fought a real war and sustained heavy casualties would we actually be able to maintain what equipment we have or would we fall back to some simpler technology? The best example I can give of what I am trying to explain would be the British Expansionary Force in early WWI with the mad minute. The Regulars were able to lay down some heavy firepower with all there training (years of practice and 1000s of rounds of ammo) but by 1915 this advantage ceased to exist because most the Regulars were dead or there were so few of them in comparison to the newly called up troops that the advantage was negated.

 

[blackberet17]

We normally do at least one per year on public lands.  As mentioned above it is a lot of work.  One exercise involved over 200 land clearance forms be signed. (We learned not to do that again).

Egads, man!

We use public lands one or twice a year, our first fall exercise is a given. One thing our Div is doing is doing 10-yr land clearances, so we don't have to do them every year (yay!). We use provincial parks as much as possible, both for hides and harbours, but for other ex-related activities as well. Our backroads aren't wide, and very few have shoulders to allow us to do certain things, but it does force us (with obvious limitations) to think more in terms of urban tactics when it come to positions of observation and such.

 

[Eye In The Sky]

Hopefully the "Wheatley River Octopus" is still a regularly used trg aide on route recces.  ;D  This was a great trg aide and I had many a laughs working that piece of ground in the PRes days.

* there is a defile directly under the words Wheatley River.  For added fun.

 

[George Wallace]

Well.  The ground from Cornwall through to Kensington is great tank country.

 

[MilEME09]

Well.  The ground from Cornwall through to Kensington is great tank country.

So is suffield, don't get lost

 

[Eye In The Sky]

Well.  The ground from Cornwall through to Kensington is great tank country.

Just need a few tanks...and a flying kitchen.  Right time of year...fresh potatoes, fresh cod, fresh lobster, fresh vegetables... 8)

 

[Old Sweat]

The bound from the Confederation Bridge to the main gate at Suffield is a bit long.

 

[PPCLI Guy]

It costs significantly less to have Reservists then Reg Force troops. For example a when I was a Pte. in the Reserves even taking as much taskings and such as I could, I still only made 13,000$ a year, vs. a Reg Force Pte. who is making roughly 3-4 times the same amount and sitting around a good portion of the day (I know what happens in the Regs, I have been there).

And when you take Reservist and Reg Force and put them together in the field, there actually isn't too much of a difference because it isn't like the time that Reservists aren't training the Reg Force is in the field training. One of the best examples is the Arty units in the Reserves. They have the same level of training and in a fair number of cases have more critical courses as they get run through them quicker due to the fact people are constantly releasing from the Reserves.

Another point is if war is getting to be too 'technical' and the quality of equipment is getting to difficult to learn on, how long do we feel we could sustain such technology in a actual war. The Reserves are more a sustain measure then a quick reaction force (which is basically the main reason we have a large Reg force, a carry back from the Cold War when we needed to run troops across the Atlantic to Germany/Norway to fight the Soviets). If we fought a real war and sustained heavy casualties would we actually be able to maintain what equipment we have or would we fall back to some simpler technology? The best example I can give of what I am trying to explain would be the British Expansionary Force in early WWI with the mad minute. The Regulars were able to lay down some heavy firepower with all there training (years of practice and 1000s of rounds of ammo) but by 1915 this advantage ceased to exist because most the Regulars were dead or there were so few of them in comparison to the newly called up troops that the advantage was negated.

Hmm.  Perhaps I will consider the source on this one.  As near as I can tell, your were PRes for a year or two with a CT in, and might now be a Reg F Navy dude in basic trades training.  Having said that, you are, rather impressively, close to 1/4 of the way to your CD.

 

[PuckChaser]

Hmm.  Perhaps I will consider the source on this one.  As near as I can tell, your were PRes for a year or two with a CT in, and might now be a Reg F Navy dude in basic trades training.  Having said that, you are, rather impressively, close to 1/4 of the way to your CD.

You mean spending a year in the PRes without getting a Supply Tech QL3 done and now maybe being a RegF stoker with less than 2 years experience doesn't qualify you to make broad assumptions about the force employment of a PRes Pte? What has the internet come to?  ;D

 

[blackberet17]

The bound from the Confederation Bridge to the main gate at Suffield is a bit long.

Great spot to do a crest drill in the centre...

 

[Humphrey Bogart]

Quote from: Crantor on Yesterday at 16:42:56

Quote from: RoyalDrew on Yesterday at 16:11:55

I would dispute this as you can still assign a unit of Regulars a task and expect it to be conducted in some sort of organized fashion.  Many Reserve units couldn't organize a kiddy corral much less get themselves ready for war in any sort of reasonable amount of time. 

There is a big difference between a Regular Battalion/Regiment and a Reserve Unit.  If you don't think so and think that they are somehow interchangeable than you're part of the problem.

I don't think you have a real grasp on the current state of the CAF.  ....  The CAF regular force is not a high readiness machine you make it out to be.  DART, SOF and a few limited units at most. 

You understand that DART does not actually exist as a ready-to-go unit?  It is a small Ops and resource caretaker organization that draws on Reg F augmentation from various units accross the country.  Meanwhile, the recent Saskatchewan fire responce was launched by an average Reg F Infantry Bn which was, at the time of call-up, just going about its routine buisness in garrison.

I didn't think his comment warranted a reply but thanks for giving one 

Contrary to your beliefs Crantor (I don't know where you get them from?), the Regular Force does move very quickly when it wants/needs to.  Don't mistake resource and equipment shortfalls for a lack of readiness.