Page 364 - The History of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps 1962–2021

THE HISTORY OF THE ROYAL ARMY VETERINARY CORPS 1962 – 2021
Other DVDs include:
The Tactical Employment of MWDs C5152/08, produced in 2008 covered the use of Military Working Dogs both on operations and for training – something that is, unfortunately, often unappre- ciated by commanders at all levels. The 17-minute DVD explains, with great clarity, the use of MWDs on deployment operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and articulates the advantages of MWDs as force multipliers in the battle space, particularly when searching for ordnance, the apprehension of enemy personnel and the force protection of areas and camps. Its intended audience was primarily battle groups in training for operations.15
The release of this DVD featured in Chiron Calling in 2008 under the title: New DVD promotes the Use of Military Working Dogs and many readers may recall that 104 MWD, based at North Luffenham, despite preparing for deployment, were also busy producing the DVD which is still distributed to military units by the British Defence Film Library.
Thanks must go to all the personnel, who truly starred in the military training film, from ATR Winchester and the Defence Animal Centre and 104 MWD. All RAVC NCOs demonstrated the professionalism and operational experience of today’s RAVC soldiers. A special mention must go to WO2 Frank Holmes RAVC, who oversaw the majority of the filming and production of what can only be called a quality RAVC promotional product, which has continued to do much to further promote the use of our widely sought after capability of Military Working Dogs.16
Winning the Fight Against IEDs17 was produced in 2013 to outline areas including: ‘The Use of the IE3D’, or ‘MWDs in the Search Effort Against the IED’. The DVD was aimed at all ranks and all arms.
Whenever possible the Corps endeavours to promote its MWA activities in all ways possible including through formal military documents and publications which can prove very informative to user units. [See at the end of the Chapter for the ‘British Army Military Working Dog Capability Capstone Doctrine, which provides a succinct unclassified overview of today’s MWD ability’].
However, essential messages are not always communicated through formal doctrine, very often it is the many positively angled newspaper and magazine articles and social media posts that prove just as influential. Both the DATR and 1 MWD Regt have a huge social media following and
the ability to reach out on-line can be very helpful when there is a need to have instant contact with the public, such as in the case of the recruitment of personnel and dogs. It is also a very useful way of responding to any adverse publicity – which is rare for the Corps and usually centres on the topic of how many MWAs have been euthanised. Historically, the statistics given by many of the tabloids have been imprecise.
Good publicity is worth its weight in gold and a review in Soldier Magazine (1990) aimed to put one, or two, records straight regarding MWDs:
‘Sniffers’ Trained by the Army
Your review of the excellent book “Dogs of War” erroneously gives the impression that the Royal Air Force is the main producer of ‘sniffer’ dogs. The Army is actually a much larger producer and user of these dogs, which are trained at the RAVC Centre, Melton Mowbray, where what was once the War Dog Training School referred to in the review. The term ‘war dog’, which conjures up images of dreadful beasties, is no longer used and has been replaced by the less emotive ‘Army’ or ‘Service’ dog.18
Dogs... in war and peace:
The Corps is a representative on the NATO Military Working Dog Expert Panel; the panel, which is made up of all NATO MWD holding units, meets twice a year to discuss all matters concerning MWDs. The UK leads on certain elements such as, in 2012-2014, the writing of NATO MWD Doctrine as well as offering advice and assistance as required. Membership allows RAVC SMEs to share important technical knowledge on the development and operational employment of MWDs to NATO partners.
Dstl has provided a great deal of assistance to the Corps over many years by producing qualitative evidence on the performance of MWDs following operational analysis in many environments. This is in addition to ‘horizon scanning’ or looking out strategically to what MWDs may be required to do many years ahead in the Defence environment.
Defence Reform 2011 and the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015, led to a greater requirement than ever before to be able to quantify and optimise the performance of MWDs. Measuring of the impact of military capabilities on operations, is required to glean evidence to justify financial expenditure.
This requirement was further increased, in the
15 The Tactical Employment of MWDs C5152/08 dated 2008.
16 Chiron Calling Summer 2008.
17 ‘Winning the Fight Against IEDs’ – C5249 13 – 1.
18 Soldier Magazine dated March 1990 letter by Lt Col Paul G H Jepson RAVC MOD AVRS, Gallwey Road, Aldershot.
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