Examination of Witnesses (Questions 195-199)
20 APRIL 2004
GENERAL SIR
MICHAEL WALKER,
ADMIRAL SIR
ALAN WEST,
GENERAL SIR
MIKE JACKSON
AND AIR
CHIEF MARSHAL
SIR JOCK
STIRRUP
Q195 Chairman: Gentlemen, thank you for
coming for part two. I am sorry we could not complete the agenda
last time. This is obviously a continuation of our earlier session
and we will be covering inter alia the combined and joint
operations. The first question, gentlemen, is on what I suppose
I could call the "emerging shape of the JRRF". You will
know but many people who have strayed in may not that the White
Paper states that the Joint Rapid Reaction force will "continue
to provide the pool of high readiness forces for rapid commitment
to operations at up to medium scale." I should have said
that there is no obligation on all of you to answer the questions.
General Sir Michael Walker: I
am very conscious that last time it was a protracted period. The
difficulty is that in asking across the piece in defence there
is no one person here who can cover absolutely everything. So
we will try to be brief, but if the answer needs a bit of context—
Q196 Chairman: I am not saying you should
provide three-line answers—as a Welshman I have never managed
to be that concise!—but please do not speak unless you feel
you have to. In an earlier answer we were told that the conclusions
on the way the Joint Rapid Reaction Force concept will change
are not expected for about two to three months. During your last
appearance you said, Sir Michael, that the work of the JRRF concept
was still on-going with definite conclusions expected in two months
or so. Without repeating the same arguments or earlier discussions,
what do you think are the key elements which you will be reassessing
in the light of your respective service contributions? This is
perhaps a question for all four of you, with Sir Michael first.
General Sir Michael Walker: I
do not think there are going to be any dramatic changes in the
concept. The concept has proven itself over a number of years
now and has been used on many occasions. I think we are talking
about looking at the degrees of readiness of the various component
parts of the force elements that make up the concept, making sure
that the force packages—because that is what it is about:
packaging forces to take them to deal with the situation wherever
it may be—are robust enough to take account of the experience
we have had over the last five/six years.
Admiral Sir Alan West: We have
started packaging our training in the Navy on the basis of training
as being part of the JRRF, and training up groups of ships that
will be likely to deploy together as part of that JRRF. The readiness
of all the various component parts is not completely finalised
and is still being worked on and decided on.
General Sir Mike Jackson: I think
there is little I can usefully add, Chairman. There are, as you
know, currently in the land component of the JRRF a number of
elements at various degrees of readiness, with training requirements
which fall out from those degrees of readiness. It has certainly
been a concept which has been well exercised over the last few
years. As far as the army is concerned, this is more a check that
we have everything properly aligned as much as we can, rather
than any radical new look at the concept. That is not how I see
it.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup:
Chairman, I would just add that we are looking very much more
at packages in terms of effects these days, rather than in terms
of pure numbers. That is the only thing I would add into that
overall mix.
Q197 Chairman: Do you expect anything
to come out of the Istanbul NATO summit that might have an effect
on this concept? Obviously NATO is moving quickly to try to deploy
land forces. We were in Istanbul recently and heard a great deal
about what was happening. We concluded how important our armed
forces are, because we are capable of moving quickly over pretty
long distances. Obviously you do not know what is going to come
out of the summit but do you anticipate from what you have heard
that there might be decisions emanating from that summit that
may have an effect not simply on the JRRF but on the concept of
rapid mobility over long distance?
General Sir Michael Walker: I
think the answer is yes. I am sure one of the major topics of
the NATO summit in Istanbul is going to be operational issues.
The NATO Response Force will clearly be a matter of discussion.
I suspect that the roster which is being developed will be discussed
in terms of how it should train together, for example. Each nation
has made a contribution on the current roster as to when they
are prepared to provide each of the component parts. It is also
of course linked to the European "Battle Group" idea,
which of course is to provide some fairly high-readiness battle
groups available for Europe to make contributions to peace-support
type operations. I cannot speculate on what the declaration from
the summit will be but I do see that we will be placing earmarks
on our forces to meet the force elements of those various NATO
and European force capabilities require.
Q198 Chairman: Mobility will not stop
at the Joint Rapid Reaction Force.
General Sir Michael Walker: No.
Q199 Chairman: It is a concept which
goes right across the whole of our military. Do you expect to
increase the size and scope of the spearhead elements or will
you instead be increasing the readiness of other forces committed
to the JRRF concept?
General Sir Michael Walker: I
do not think we have concluded on that yet. The spearhead lead
element, the spearhead unit, is always a very useful unit and
I do not see us changing that. Clearly the incremental approach
to readiness is key. To try to keep all your forces at the very
highest degree of readiness is both unnecessarily expensive and
very demanding of people's time. It seems to me that it is going
to be the packaging of the packages, rather than the increase
in vast quantities of the readiness of those packages, and, to
a degree, some adjustments to the readiness elsewhere to make
sure that the enabling capabilities can keep pace with the combat
capabilities.
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