Page 7 - QDG Year of 2020

It was reputedly the Chinese who came up with the curse ‘May you live in interesting times’ – a curse because ‘interesting’ in this context means something between ‘turbulent’ and ‘terrifying’ – so it is ironic that the interesting times stemmed ulti- mately from China. However, the Royal Armoured Corps have risen to the chal- lenges and as always have stepped up to assist in this time of national crisis. We have supported Op RESCRIPT widely, including staff support in HQs, running Testing Centres and units on standby for COVID support forces; we have worked from home without diminishing our oper- ational output and whilst there is always further to go, have become used to doing e-business. As Armoured Commanders we all endeavour to master the ability to monitor two nets, read a map, write a SOC, and direct a gunner all whilst the turret is facing the opposite way to direction of travel. These traits have been tested to new levels as we juggle the multiple technological modems that we find ourselves currently tied to.
This is not to say, of course, that remote working will become the rule across the board in the future. We remain a people organisation and remote working is a reversionary mode. The camaraderie of the Royal Armoured Corps, as of the British Army in general, is one of its most precious assets. But, as much as we enjoy this camaraderie, we are not inward looking. We are all linked by social media; smart phones enable instantaneous transmission of footage from anywhere in the world. We must be fully integrated with this, and exploit the opportunities offered by social media in a
way we have not been able to before. Our plan is to harness our growing social media feeds to improve our message and extend its reach and by so doing, improve both recruiting and retention.
Having mentioned recruiting;
our manning is generally
good, though there is more
to do. As a Corps we should
certainly be attractive to those
thinking of joining us. There
are opportunities to deploy our capabilities – in Mali, Estonia,
the Balkans and Poland.
There is convincing evidence
that we are a popular choice
of Arm, with five candidates
for every single RAC place
at Sandhurst. Those that we
do accept have vindicated their selec- tion by their outstanding performance. Recently, the top ICSC(L) student was an Armoured Corps officer, as was the
Sword of Honour winner at Sandhurst in the Spring. The quality of those we recruit is as good as it ever was. These are all positive factors, but I am conscious that we may well need to change as a result of the Integrated Review.
The lessons from COVID show the impact to a country if not fully prepared for a threat. With ever growing numbers of Russian armour in
the Western Military District, we must maintain a sovereign and credible military capability, with the power to deter our enemies and inspire confidence in our
allies. Having recently returned from Gotland, Sweden where I was fortunate enough to see newly delivered and highly impressive Leopard 2A5s; one could not be more struck by their approach to Total Defence. With both the Swedish and Norwegians increasing their investment in Armour, its and therefore our importance cannot be forgotten. This is a matter of balance to enable an all Domain capa- bility throughout the spectrum of conflict. We ‘combined arms’ and embraced jointery to leverage capability that, as the Israelis found, was wanting during the early hours of the Yom Kippur War. We need a nationally credible armoured capability as part of that balance and can ill afford to be found wanting.
1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards 5
Colonel Commandant’s Foreword
We are all linked by social media; smart phones enable instantaneous transmission of footage from anywhere in the world