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Shake-up will see Territorials serving with regular army
GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN
CHIEF NEWS CORRESPONDENT
The Scotsman
February 20 2006
PART-TIME soldiers are to be allowed to serve in regular army regiments for the first time as part of a radical shake-up of the military.
The reorganisation will mean that soldiers can sign up to a regiment to serve for anything from a few days a month to full-time. They will join a regular regiment as a part-timer, train with the regulars and share equipment.
Discussions have taken place at a high level about dropping the separate logos in advertising campaigns for regular and part-time or territorial army (TA) troops and recruiting for the two forces is being merged.
The shake-up runs alongside drastic cuts to the TA infantry revealed by The Scotsman on Saturday and due to be announced by John Reid, the Defence Secretary, in the next couple of weeks.
The changes are the result of years of internal debate within the army about the role of the TA, which has been used increasingly to fill the gaps left by cuts to the regular army. About 12,500 TA members have served in Iraq since the start of the war in 2003, with about 800 currently deployed, but about 13,500 have left in the same period.
The first steps towards integrating the regular army and the TA are already taking place in Scotland, where responsibility for recruiting for the new Royal Regiment of Scotland has been handed to 51 Brigade, which commands the country's TA units.
The process is known as One Army Recruiting and discussions have also taken place about running joint television adverts for the regular and territorial armies, omitting their separate logos and simply inviting potential recruits to join the army.
The MoD denies that the TA will disappear entirely, but a spokesman said that the sentiments behind a merger with the regular army reflected the long- term aims of the military.
"It is a natural progression," he said. "This process is something that will happen incrementally over several years."
The spokesman said that details had not previously been disclosed because the plan was still being worked on.
"It is not a merger. The TA is being changed and reshaped to make it more effective," he said.
The plan will appeal to some in the army who are keen to make greater use of the TA's part-timers and integrate them into the regular army's operations.
"Recruiters will be looking to see what best suits the individual," the spokesman said. "We want them for the regular army but many people dip their toe in the water with the TA. If you say you want to join part-time, that will be possible.
"There will be very few closures - one regiment will disappear and three centres are closing. There will be some other changes and apparent loss of a name. Anyone who wants to remain in the TA can. It is up to individuals to decide which way they want to go."
He pledged that there would be no compulsory redundancies but that some TA members would have to accept that they would have to move if they wanted to remain in the role for which they had signed up.
"We are trying to balance the TA so it fulfils the needs of today's army and that does mean some change," he said.
The MoD wants to take advantage of the skills of specialists in areas such as engineering and medicine and hopes that the idea of being able to participate in military deployments without having to commit full-time to the army will appeal to younger recruits.
Some have expressed concern about the length of deployments - up to nine months in some cases once training is included - and there have been problems with unsympathetic employers who have refused to keep jobs open for those who volunteer for duty.
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