**British Armed Forces Discussion Thread**

Woke Wiggy, reputable damage in the tabloids, perceived low pay, changes to pay/pensions, there's a myriad of reasons why young folk don't want to join up these days. There's a lot going on to increase recruiting, but these are bringing their own problems, now and in the future - lowering of standards being one of them. There are some absolute dross coming through the sausage factory these days.

Things like this don't help either: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...ne-gang-bangs-drug-dealers-whistleblower.html
 
When you say ‘sausage factory’ do you mean Sleaford Tech or Halton? Please explain how you know there is a lot of dross coming through and what constitutes dross.
 
the_worrier said:
When you say ‘sausage factory’ do you mean Sleaford Tech or Halton? Please explain how you know there is a lot of dross coming through and what constitutes dross.
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do you mean Sleaford Tech or Halton?
  1. Both.
Please explain how you know there is a lot of dross coming through and what constitutes dross.

  1. Personal opinion. Don't get me wrong, there is also a lot of talent coming through too.
 
No chance would I join the armed forces now, ignoring budget cuts, I just don't value the country enough (and the way it's being run) to put my life on the line for it anymore
 
Richard_16v said:
No chance would I join the armed forces now, ignoring budget cuts, I just don't value the country enough (and the way it's being run) to put my life on the line for it anymore
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There’s a lot to be said for it - guaranteed job for the length of your engagement, food, accommodation, qualifications that may or may not be useful but are paid for, lots of leave, pension etc.

While we aren’t on Ops the same way we were for most of my career, you also don’t need to be really patriotic to serve or want to go to war. I would still recommend it, but more as a stepping stone in life rather than a full 40 year career as I viewed it when I joined.
 
There is a lot more to a career within the Armed Forces that "fighting for the country".

I'm getting as much out of this career now as possible (qualifications, trade/professional experience), not so much "fighting" but plenty deployments still happening.

It is a changing machine though, definitely lacking in numbers and lacking in money. a lot more scrutiny of finances to basically do anything.

Overall, the offer is still relatively decent, but it's not as good as it used to be clearly.
 
lemonkettaz said:
There is a lot more to a career within the Armed Forces that "fighting for the country".

I'm getting as much out of this career now as possible (qualifications, trade/professional experience), not so much "fighting" but plenty deployments still happening.

It is a changing machine though, definitely lacking in numbers and lacking in money. a lot more scrutiny of finances to basically do anything.

Overall, the offer is still relatively decent, but it's not as good as it used to be clearly.
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You mean I can’t take a fast jet over the Channel to pick up some cheese and wine for lunch…?
 
My lad has the same thought process, you are in the military and therefore you are sent away all the time to kill people! A lot of the US military join for the education benefits, once college is paid for, they are out of there!

As above, a lot of people do a few years or a full career, but while you are in you are fed, clothed, homed, paid, travel opportunities, with access to education allowances and pension. It's still a good option, even just for a few years to build up your maturity, confidence and CV.
 
It's very much what you make it in most aspects, obviously there are things that you can't control which have an effect, like where you get posted to some respect. World events whilst you are in is a big one that you clearly have no control of, but I'd imagine most decades have had their fare share of "travel" opportunities.

You can easily put pretty much 0 effort in and still be paid, which may not pay off when you leave.

Or you can screw the nut and see it as one long resettlement course, gaining as many valuable qualifications as possible. Even the promotion courses are now aligned to educational levels, so just doing your career you can end up with a degree in management with a few bit of paperwork thrown in.

I have around 8-10yrs left, not saying I'll stay but I am also not saying I need out. I'll leave when the opportunities cease, be it promotion, posting, deployment, or professional experience. The one thing I truly hate however is being away at Christmas, luckily it's only happened 3 times in 14 years so not bad considering :)
 
Even now with the current "offer", I'd still do it all over again. I'd probably join a different corps mind. If I could speak to my younger self I'd have definitely told myself to join the Signals.
Whilst I've loved my career in the Arty. Its not the best for "transferrable" skills.

lemonkettaz said:
Or you can screw the nut and see it as one long resettlement course
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I wish I had this mentality earlier in my career. Up until about 4-5 years ago I was just along for the ride, for the experience, grabbing any deployment, post or assignment I could. I'd do my damn best to stay away from RD's. Hell it was fun for the most part, unfortunately this resulted in me never having time to focus on CPD or being able to focus on the "after".
It wasnt until COVID hit and I had time to actually start working on myself and my future. the last few years have been a mad dash to quantify my knowledge into recognised qualifications.


lemonkettaz said:
The one thing I truly hate however is being away at Christmas, luckily it's only happened 3 times in 14 years so not bad considering :)
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I've been fortunate enough to only spend one Christmas away out of the 16 I've been in for. Over the winter of 2013/4 H19. It really didnt bother me either, we made the best we could have it.
 
steve45 said:
I've been fortunate enough to only spend one Christmas away out of the 16 I've been in for. Over the winter of 2013/4 H19. It really didnt bother me either, we made the best we could have it.
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I was out on Herrick Xmas/NY 2012/13. I was working with RAFP and RAF Regt and come Xmas meal, each thought the other had counted me - neither had. No Xmas dinner for me :(

 
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ivrytwr3 said:
I was out on Herrick Xmas/NY 2012/13. I was working with RAFP and RAF Regt and come Xmas meal, each thought the other had counted me - neither had. No Xmas dinner for me :(

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I was lucky enough to spend most of H19 in Bastion. On Christmas day they put on a quiz/games/movie night and food ordered from the pizza shop Bastion 0. I wasnt so fortunate, I was working late shift in TFH HQ (PTDS LNO, huge Yank aerostats) so couldnt hang about for the festivities. IIRC I think the Battle Capt ordered in a load of Pizza's from the same Pizza shop, so I got a few slices in the end, I always remember that pizza tasting so damn good, it was a quiet shift as well as I dont think there were any Ops ongoing so we had xmas movies on in the ops room etc.

Thats one thing I sorely regret, not taking more photos during my tours!
 
steve45 said:
I was lucky enough to spend most of H19 in Bastion. On Christmas day they put on a quiz/games/movie night and food ordered from the pizza shop Bastion 0. I wasnt so fortunate, I was working late shift in TFH HQ (PTDS LNO, huge Yank aerostats) so couldnt hang about for the festivities. IIRC I think the Battle Capt ordered in a load of Pizza's from the same Pizza shop, so I got a few slices in the end, I always remember that pizza tasting so damn good, it was a quiet shift as well as I dont think there were any Ops ongoing so we had xmas movies on in the ops room etc.

Thats one thing I sorely regret, not taking more photos during my tours!
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We worked with the US, so had passes for Leatherneck, funny thing, you would find me in the DFAC on Surf and Turf nights washed down with Baskin Robbins :cry:

Was the KFC van still there in your time? I had a job on, the 2 KFC staff were hoarding a month or 2 takings and then left via the front gate - no idea where they thought they were going to go - they were in the middle of an Afghan desert! We picked them up very quickly, money recovered and they were on a flight out of there. The KFC also had a higher rate than the bag guys, that van sent a lot of people man down with D&V!
 
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steve45 said:
I was lucky enough to spend most of H19 in Bastion. On Christmas day they put on a quiz/games/movie night and food ordered from the pizza shop Bastion 0. I wasnt so fortunate, I was working late shift in TFH HQ (PTDS LNO, huge Yank aerostats) so couldnt hang about for the festivities. IIRC I think the Battle Capt ordered in a load of Pizza's from the same Pizza shop, so I got a few slices in the end, I always remember that pizza tasting so damn good, it was a quiet shift as well as I dont think there were any Ops ongoing so we had xmas movies on in the ops room etc.

Thats one thing I sorely regret, not taking more photos during my tours!
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I was on the C17 Christmas Crew and flew daily into Bastion/Kaf from Minhad for 2 weeks over Christmas 2013.

We were given 5 massive Santa sacks of gifts, goodies and cakes etc from the Brize Norton Station Execs to hand out.

We landed very early Christmas day morning at Bastion and handed everything over to VAHS and Bastion Ops/ATC who came to greet us.

With me being the lowest rank in the crew I was given the joyus role of being dressed like Santa. I hope some of the gifts/cakes etc made it as far as you guys and not in just the VAHS or Ops Tea Bar.

We used to always take fresh milk and bacon to the VAHS guys too.

We would then give our left over inflight catering/ice cream (Ordered from Dubai Airport via Emirates) to the REME guys at Minhad, in exchange to let us drive the Foxhounds/Jackals being held there around the bondu :D
 
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I had a right palace for a pit space, there was only 4 of us to the tent, loads of space, loads of storage and all partitioned off. Even had the Aircon/heating vents modified.

Mad_Jay said:
I hope some of the gifts/cakes etc made it as far as you guys and not in just the VAHS or Ops Tea Bar.
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I dont recall seeing anything. We got plenty of welfare packages and a special Christmas box though, so we wernt exactly shy on goodies, guys on the ground got plenty as well when the air/road moves allowed for it.
 
lemonkettaz said:
So guess we now have to reverse everything we have gotten rid of over the last 20 years?

Who would have thought scrimping on defence would inevitably be the wrong path...
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In what regards? As in the offer for the soldier? Absolutely need to improve what is offered to the soldier from bottom to top. I've been in 16 years and I've seen a gradual year on year degradation of the benefits of serving, as well as dismantling of the culture whilst piling on more and more commitments.
As for the kit? Nah it belongs in the past, we need to rapidly modernise and upscale if we are going to meet the present potential threats and put us in a position to face future ones. Modernisation isnt a once in a generation commitment, its continuous. We spent far too long looking at the crocodile closest to the boat and set ourselves up for low intensity operations, we are now playing catch up as we tried to repurpose that equipment and ways of working.

I'll refer to my post in response to upping our defence commitments in the Ukraine thread.
steve45 said:
We should have been doing this anyway! We are very much "caught with our pants down". We got finished with Afghanistan in 2014 and just effectively put our feet up, we got comfortable with low intensity operations. We spent far too long planning for the wrong conflict and have been burying their heads in the sand hoping that our defence forces would never actually need to be relied upon or that US would step in and save our asses should the worst happen.
Granted a well manned, well equipped Armed Forces can be seen to be a waste of money to a short sighted person, especially when you have such a wasteful and beaurocratic society. However, "proper" investment in our own defence and security is never wasted. As well as proper investment and complete overhaul of procurement and spending NEEDS to be down to stop the haemorrhaging of money and inefficient processes etc, so that the money gets spent properly. I'd be happy to see a system in the spirit of DOGE be set up to dismantle the horrendous mismanagement of our defence finances. The real world wastage is genuinely disgusting.
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That said we have much bigger issues than just budget. We have a generation of teenagers and young adults that overwhelmingly just dont find the Military as an attractive option. Then we make it difficult for the few that do want to join by putting a faceless and useless company in there that makes the process long and difficult. I have no confidence that SERCO will improve the recruitment process and Capita were an unmitigated disaster.

lemonkettaz said:
who is up for another 6 monther ?
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If we get confirmation of tours starting up to send us to Eastern Europe. I'd seriously strongly consider joining back up as a reservist if there was a significant prospect of deploying. Even if it was just a peace keeping force.


But then thats just the world according to Steve... We spend way to much of our time discussing these exact points in work.
 
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