Army troop budgets

No1newts · 10 Apr 2010 at 01:40

As per title.

My friend is in the marines. He has essentially been told by his CO that he had a budget from the army for his gear (nowhere near enough) and the rest he has to get himself! So the rest of a British marines gear is sourced from such Stirling outlets as poundland (this is where he and his mates go) I am sorry but this is the Briish Marines, equivelant to the American Nay Seals, in theory the best in the business but they have to buy their own ******* kit

Look at us we are so great we can hardly **** ourselves without someone to give us a great big hand. Its embarassingly moronic that countries like even America who rumour has it look up to our own special forces will be ****ing themselves at such a **** poor operation. But what else do we expect from labour? We can of course fund the terrorists and the feckless unemployed in our country before doing something dceent like protecting our own troops that we send out to battle. **** labour and **** this ******** government. **** em all.

personally it's a disgrace that our elite are left insuch a poor state and have to effectively fund themselves.

Opinions? And no I'm not guns grass my mate. He hates his circumstances but loves the job

shauncr91 · 10 Apr 2010 at 01:42

Sorry, we spent all the money on TV's for prison cells, booze/fags for the unemployed and housing for 16 year olds with 6 kids.

Glad to see our priorities are in the right order

No1newts · 10 Apr 2010 at 01:53

shauncr91 said:
Sorry, we spent all the money on TV's for prison cells, booze/fags for the unemployed and housing for 16 year olds with 6 kids.

Glad to see our priorities are in the right order

I know I'm nerd raging but this is where the money has gone! **** it drives me comletely bonkers that we could pay for some **** for nowt!

Thanks for risking your life but we don't give a toss about you, we have feckless imigrants who need your body armour more! Lucky you!

Jokester · 10 Apr 2010 at 02:00

A school friend of mine used to be in the Royal Marines and he had the same thing. Had to buy most of his own kit or "borrow" it from US forces. Nice to see Gordon "Our troops are adequately equipped" Brown has changed things for the better since then!

2StepSteve · 10 Apr 2010 at 02:19

Disgusting.

Amp34 · 10 Apr 2010 at 03:34

Yes and no, technically yes, but in reality training wise our Royal Marines are probably far higher trained than the USMC, who by all accounts seem to be a load of gun toating rednecks.

The latter point backed up by some comments from people who served in Iraq alongside them...

Indy500 · 10 Apr 2010 at 03:42

shauncr91 said:
Sorry, we spent all the money on TV's for prison cells, booze/fags for the unemployed and housing for 16 year olds with 6 kids.

Glad to see our priorities are in the right order

Glad to see OcUK forums churns out the same tired, pathetic hyperbole as it has been for some years now. Get a grip. Unless you can prove the government spent more on "on TV's for prison cells, booze/fags for the unemployed and housing for 16 year olds with 6 kids." than it did on the military (£40.4 billion).

£40 billion is more than enough for soldiers to have basic kit, so either someone is telling porkies here or the money given to the MoD gets misappropriated somewhere.

OP, does your friend not realise he is being treated like cannon fodder?

neoboy · 10 Apr 2010 at 03:43

There's really no point comparing them to anyone, most of us here are civilians with huge rift in understanding the military concepts so we're just speculating without much evidence. Oh wait this is OCUK, carry on

Yeah this is nothing unheard of, people I know in the forces say the same thing. Military operation are mind boggingly expensive affairs so there will always be people left under equipped and with recent spiralling costs it's not going to get better any time soon.

Jokester · 10 Apr 2010 at 03:44

From what I can remember of my mate, though they were being clothed and booted, it totally crap gear and inappropriate for the desert and mountainous conditions they were being sent to.

shauncr91 · 10 Apr 2010 at 03:45

sr4470 said:
Glad to see OcUK forums churns out the same tired, pathetic hyperbole as it has been for some years now. Get a grip. Unless you can prove the government spent more on "on TV's for prison cells, booze/fags for the unemployed and housing for 16 year olds with 6 kids." than it did on the military (£40.4 billion).

£40 billion is more than enough for soldiers to have basic kit, so either someone is telling porkies here or the money given to the MoD gets misappropriated somewhere.

OP, does your friend not realise he is being treated like cannon fodder?

No but the amount of money that is effectively thrown away on different things all builds up and eventually it does have a direct effect on people like the OP's friend.

I_M_Weasel · 10 Apr 2010 at 09:19

I suspect your friend has had all the kit he's supposed to have issued to him. However the issue kit isn't always the best- its adequate. So if he wants nicer kit he may have to go and buy it himself but thats because he wants to not because he has to.

There's always stories flying around of people buying their own body armor etc.. but I've never actually met anyone or unit that actually did it. Thats not to say units haven't gone to war entirely without it.

If your unit is about to go on operations its priority changes and the short supply bits of kit that in peace time are difficult to obtain suddenly become available.

Finally, I don't think the media sensationalism about kit shortages helps, it leads to knee jerk appropriation of vehicles and kit that may or may not be up to the job, some of our new vehicles are really good, some others have been an utter waste and barely better than the snatch landrover that they've taken over from.

And finally, finally, the army and government wont use us as cannon fodder, we're quite expensive and take a while to train but most of all its politically bad to have dead soldiers.

subrosa · 10 Apr 2010 at 09:29

No1newts said:
As per title.

My friend is in the marines. He has essentially been told by his CO that he had a budget from the army for his gear (nowhere near enough) and the rest he has to get himself! So the rest of a British marines gear is sourced from such Stirling outlets as poundland (this is where he and his mates go) I am sorry but this is the Briish Marines, equivelant to the American Nay Seals, in theory the best in the business but they have to buy their own ******* kit Look at us we are so great we can hardly **** ourselves without someone to give us a great big hand. Its embarassingly moronic that countries like even America who rumour has it look up to our own special forces will be ****ing themselves at such a **** poor operation. But what else do we expect from labour? We can of course fund the terrorists and the feckless unemployed in our country before doing something dceent like protecting our own troops that we send out to battle. **** labour and **** this ******** government. **** em all.

personally it's a disgrace that our elite are left insuch a poor state and have to effectively fund themselves.

Opinions? And no I'm not guns grass my mate. He hates his circumstances but loves the job

Hi

I'm a serving officer in the Army. I've been to both Iraq and Afghanistan and worked in a unit as a Troop Commander, Squadron Second-in-Command and Adjutant. I've worked in a Divisional HQ on operations.

A Commanding Officer will indeed have a budget to run his unit for the financial year. However, this doesn't pay for soldier's kit - webbing, Bergens, clothing, boots etc.

I'm struggling to think of any important bit of military kit that Poundland will sell. Honestly, they sell nothing that would ordinarily be issued.

Our soldiers, especially the infantry, have a lot of equipment at their disposal on operations. This is almost definately to the detriment of the CO's budget back home but hey, let's apply some perspective here.

Perhaps your mate could elaborate on what kit he's missing?

meghatronic · 10 Apr 2010 at 09:38

“I gave them everything they asked for.” - Gordon Brown

Disingenuous at best, treasonous* at worst.

(* the action of betraying one's country, someone or something)

do_ron_ron · 10 Apr 2010 at 09:50

Jokester said:
A school friend of mine used to be in the Royal Marines and he had the same thing. Had to buy most of his own kit or "borrow" it from US forces. Nice to see Gordon "Our troops are adequately equipped" Brown has changed things for the better since then!

Name one war in the last 100 years Britain has been prepared for and their serviceman have all the necessary kit!!

We have never been prepared, even when war was seen as coming, as in WW2.

scorza · 10 Apr 2010 at 10:13

They deliberately starve troops of equipment if they didn't they'd have a load of happy marines on their hands. They don't want happy marines, they want unhappy, angry, aggressive marines.

jellybeard999 · 10 Apr 2010 at 10:14

meghatronic said:
“I gave them everything they asked for.” - Gordon Brown

Disingenuous at best, treasonous* at worst.

(* the action of betraying one's country, someone or something)

Again, the blame always seems to fall to Gordon Brown, but not the top military bods.

Gordon Brown gave the money, he doesn't go and order 1000 of x and 100 of y. The high level military chiefs are as much to blame as anyone.

Cyanide · 10 Apr 2010 at 10:16

jellybeard999 said:
Again, the blame always seems to fall to Gordon Brown, but not the top military bods.

Gordon Brown gave the money, he doesn't go and order 1000 of x and 100 of y. The high level military chiefs are as much to blame as anyone.

This. They're just like the NHS and any other service. They'll moan and say they need another £100trillion to do things properly and if they get it they'll set up a committee and blow the entire £100trillion on a 12 year survey from private consultants to decide how to spend the money.

meghatronic · 10 Apr 2010 at 10:22

jellybeard999 said:
Again, the blame always seems to fall to Gordon Brown, but not the top military bods.

Gordon Brown gave the money, he doesn't go and order 1000 of x and 100 of y. The high level military chiefs are as much to blame as anyone.

Cyanide said:
This. They're just like the NHS and any other service. They'll moan and say they need another £100trillion to do things properly and if they get it they'll set up a committee and blow the entire £100trillion on a 12 year survey from private consultants to decide how to spend the money.

It isn't just him, it's every Liberal or Labor (and maybe Tory <- my knowledge gap) government since 1900s onwards.

But, "the top military bods" know far more about military spending than anyone else in the country, including the government. They say their needs have never been met, troops on the ground say their needs haven't been met, even the US has criticised it.... but our illustrious PM says they've had all they want.
I know who I trust.

And, also, you might want to read about the MoD - as a government department separate to, and above, the "top military bods". They are in charge of military procurement, spending, day to day running etc.

Naffa · 10 Apr 2010 at 10:22

Can I just ask something (hopefully fairly obvious) here.

If your friend the Marine was in need of equipment, and had to buy it himself, what equipment required for Iraqi/Afghan warfare would be found in Poundland? :confused:

I'm at a bit of a loss for what he would actually need if he was able to source it from there.

lemonkettaz · 10 Apr 2010 at 10:42

An actual member of the Army has asked the same question a few posts up....

Nobody wants to quote that one...

I can't see the poundland thing, but I can see buying better gear elsewhere.... I obviously don't know what gear though, just what we have all heard.

Seems like Labour don't really care for the mod, cutting budgets during 2 conflicts and has anyone mentioned a plan for afghanistan for this upcoming election...?

I mean, can they actually vote out there?