APPENDIX 24
Memorandum from the Ministry of Defence
concerning a Strategy for the Army (17 November 2000)
I am writing to inform you that the Army Board
has this week endorsed a Strategy for the Army that sets out how,
over the next decade, the Army will work to ensure that it can
continue to sustain the capability to achieve operational success.
The strategy is not a radical change or a fresh start, but builds
on the SDR and our recent work on developing defence policy in
the context of the predicted future Defence environment. It will
be implemented over the next 10 to 12 years and will evolve with
emerging defence policy.
The strategy makes clear that people remain
our top priority after current operations and that attracting
and retaining high quality personnel is fundamental to sustaining
operational capability. We will therefore look at how best we
can run the Army to improve the quality and predictability of
the lives of individuals and their families and accept and value
diversity in their background, culture and lifestyles—building
on the strengths of the regimental system.
The introduction of the Formation Readiness
Cycle, due to be fully established in 2002, will ensure that our
forces can meet required readiness levels and bring more predictability
to lives of our personnel. We will be looking across all parts
of the Army, including the reserves, to ensure that we make the
best possible use of the people available and meet the realistic
aspirations of the individual.
Finally, I should stress that the Army Board
remains determined to retain all that is best in the Army, its
war fighting skills, values and standards and the regimental fighting
spirit.
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