Why Are We Training?

摘要

That is not as stupid a question as it sounds. There is an argument doing the rounds that we (whether "we" indicates the UK, any other nation, or all nations depends on who you talk to) are facing a hiatus with regard to military training - one that could have far-reaching effects on the readiness and capabilities of our Armed Forces. What is it, in fact, we are training for? It comes down to a question of adequate definition of threats - a definition made more difficult by the explosion across the threat spectrum over the last 20 years, coupled with the distraction effect of recent operations. It could be argued with some justification that the British Armed Forces' training in "conventional" warfare has atrophied in that period, to a degree, as a result of the understandable focus on expeditionary warfare operations and low-intensity conflict engagements in the Far East, Middle East and North Africa. Focusing on the current requirement is absolutely the right thing to do and, if strenuous efforts have been made to spread the effort across all aspects of a cohesive readiness posture, the fact that there are still gaps in the coverage is a result of the inadequacy of resources to allocate across the spectrum, rather than deliberate, or even benign neglect.