The Future of the Army Reserve - Discuss

[DeV]

Found that TA recruit training syllabus I mentioned, now 12 years old but was

6 weekends (all an early start so I assume report Friday night, working late Saturday and 1/2 day Sunday) - briefs, drill, fieldcraft (including overnight ex), PT, rifle (including TOETs & 25m range), CBRN. This module was also offered as a 10 day consolidated FTT block (with early starts).

plus another 3 weekends for infantry (again early starts , working late Saturday & early finishes) - PT, rifle (including range), CBRN, first aid, map reading, fieldcraft (including overnight ex). This module was also offered as a 5 day consolidated FTT block (with early starts).

2 weeks FTT (arrive Saturday and pass out parade on Friday (day 14)) - drill, briefs, PT, rifle (including TOETs again and ranges), map reading, first aid, fieldcraft (including 2 exs (total of 4 nights on the ground))

the exercises seem to be used to do mainly practical fieldcraft & map reading lessons (as well as learning to look after yourself in the field, possibly some basic patrolling). Interestingly they don’t seem to do section attack at all!

I believe what they do now is 5 weekends (with consolidated option of 1 weekend and a week (5 days?)) plus 2 weeks plus distance learning. i believe the content is broadly similar to previously (but possibly the fitness tests etc have changed).

The weekends have to be done within a certain max time between them or you need to repeat them. I believe the weekends (or at least some of them have reserve Instrs but the 2 weeks is regular instrs).

That is their recruit training. They then complete trade training (2 weeks FTT for Infantry, which I believe is very much field based) and instructed by regulars.

Of course, the British Army has has stuff like ETRs for a long time and have facilities to allow greater throughput faster, plus sufficient Instrs.

[trellheim]

Yes, thats my point . short and to the point and gets people through the pipeline fast.

[ODIN]

Yes, thats my point . short and to the point and gets people through the pipeline fast.

And the way our numbers are currently, that might be something we need to do for the next few years in an attempt to stabilise numbers

[Rhodes]

Having recently seen the local RDF having their summer camp in my location I was shocked by how bad and lazy their training was.
A recruit "platoon" of about five and as many in the 2-Star "platoon" doing a few drills in the car park was the height of how tactical it got. Not even as much as a helmet in sight never mind a battle vest and daysack or heaven forbid body armour and camo cream.

I've seen the RDF recruit and 2-Star syllabus' and while it is basic and only scratches the surface compared to the Army equivalents, they are decent syllabi given that so much has to be crammed into a handful of days training per year.

The syllabus isn't the problem, it's the piss poor standard of training that is the problem. Good quality of instruction and training would make good reservists.
Anybody who says that reservists should be allowed to go overseas needs to take a good hard look at themselves and the huge gap in the training standards between the RDF and the Army. It's wider than ever.

[DeV]

Having recently seen the local RDF having their summer camp in my location I was shocked by how bad and lazy their training was.
A recruit "platoon" of about five and as many in the 2-Star "platoon" doing a few drills in the car park was the height of how tactical it got. Not even as much as a helmet in sight never mind a battle vest and daysack or heaven forbid body armour and camo cream.

I've seen the RDF recruit and 2-Star syllabus' and while it is basic and only scratches the surface compared to the Army equivalents, they are decent syllabi given that so much has to be crammed into a handful of days training per year.

The syllabus isn't the problem, it's the piss poor standard of training that is the problem. Good quality of instruction and training would make good reservists.
Anybody who says that reservists should be allowed to go overseas needs to take a good hard look at themselves and the huge gap in the training standards between the RDF and the Army. It's wider than ever.

god help us

And it varies so much unit to unit which is a major issue…. How is a 15-20 units running recruit training for 5 recruits each an efficient use of resources? It is also far from motivational for the recruits themselves (and the 5 friends (potential recruits) that they will each tell of their experience

there are many good NCOs and officers out there … but unfortunately for every good one there is at least 1 bad

all training courses really need to be centralised at brigade level or above. Recruits (and good NCOs to train them being so few on the ground) we could probably run them at all army level at 4 fairly full platoons a year.

imho 2 intakes of 2 platoons is what we can manage with our resources (assuming we can get medicals and security clearances). Otherwise units are competing for scarce resources…. Constraining those resources further

ongoing recruitment … I can see the benefits as it spreads out demand and workload on recruitment but it then moves the problem to training

all of this doesn’t just impact recruitment it also directly effects retention

[DeV]

Yes, thats my point . short and to the point and gets people through the pipeline fast.

It does but leaves out a lot of basic soldiering skills

[trellheim]

I have not seen a summer camp in many years.

[trellheim]

RDF recruiting portal is now shut.

[batterysgt]

The RDF should be well able to train their own, with their own personnel. Otherwise what's the point of qualifying so many in SIC courses. Isn't that the reason they gave when applying to do it.
oh hang I'm not committing to that, just the intructors course please.

[batterysgt]

I don't think there are enough good, reliable Reservists left to take on the challenge by themselves. I think only a dedicated pool of PDF instructors in a central location over a two year period will make it work.

[na grohmiti]

There used to be a unit of (mostly) reliable reservist instructors in the last version of the RDF, but that version was struck down, and everyone was cast to the 4 winds.

[DeV]

The RDF should be well able to train their own, with their own personnel. Otherwise what's the point of qualifying so many in SIC courses. Isn't that the reason they gave when applying to do it.
oh hang I'm not committing to that, just the intructors course please.

SIC2 is a requirement to instruct on career courses

the PDF also have to rely on specialist instrs for some elements of recruit training eg PTIs, Public Order Instr, NVE Instr, etc etc

the difference is that it’s unlikely to occur at weekends or nights (in addition to their other duties)

[DeV]

Found that TA recruit training syllabus I mentioned, now 12 years old but was

6 weekends (all an early start so I assume report Friday night, working late Saturday and 1/2 day Sunday) - briefs, drill, fieldcraft (including overnight ex), PT, rifle (including TOETs & 25m range), CBRN. This module was also offered as a 10 day consolidated FTT block (with early starts).

plus another 3 weekends for infantry (again early starts , working late Saturday & early finishes) - PT, rifle (including range), CBRN, first aid, map reading, fieldcraft (including overnight ex). This module was also offered as a 5 day consolidated FTT block (with early starts).

2 weeks FTT (arrive Saturday and pass out parade on Friday (day 14)) - drill, briefs, PT, rifle (including TOETs again and ranges), map reading, first aid, fieldcraft (including 2 exs (total of 4 nights on the ground))

the exercises seem to be used to do mainly practical fieldcraft & map reading lessons (as well as learning to look after yourself in the field, possibly some basic patrolling). Interestingly they don’t seem to do section attack at all!

I believe what they do now is 5 weekends (with consolidated option of 1 weekend and a week (5 days?)) plus 2 weeks plus distance learning. i believe the content is broadly similar to previously (but possibly the fitness tests etc have changed).

The weekends have to be done within a certain max time between them or you need to repeat them. I believe the weekends (or at least some of them have reserve Instrs but the 2 weeks is regular instrs).

That is their recruit training. They then complete trade training (2 weeks FTT for Infantry, which I believe is very much field based) and instructed by regulars.

Of course, the British Army has has stuff like ETRs for a long time and have facilities to allow greater throughput faster, plus sufficient Instrs.

Quoting myself but not sure how much of the above have changed in last 12 years

but the Combat Infantryman’s Cse (Reserve) - CIC(R) is the 2 weeks (instructed completely by Regulars) that is infantry “trade” training - this is the equivalent to 2*-3* syllabus

it consists of tactical training (overnight and 72 hour) including harbour routine, patrols, section & Pln attacks), PT and ranges



strangely they don’t seem to cover section level support weapons, signals etc

[trellheim]

It looks like only 692 RDF pers did paid mandays last year given the DOD annual report figures, which is shockingly bad

[DeV]

It looks like only 692 RDF pers did paid mandays last year given the DOD annual report figures, which is shockingly bad

To quote the annual report:

A total of 15,066 man-days were utilised during 2021 by 729* RDF members.

* A number of reservists completed standard training and COVID-19 duty and/or RDFRA related days. Duplicate names have been removed from the total number.



Don’t forget due to covid, no training was allowed for more of 2021