[War] United Kingdom: "Strength of Arms"

[Michael Downey]

"Strength of Arms"
Prime Minister Owen Eckley
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
24 September 2006
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Prime Minister Eckley was very aware that he knew next to nothing
about the military. He was a businessman and a politician, not a
soldier. He had never served a day in uniform in his life. That was
why he had surrounded himself with those who did know the military.
Men who had an acute understanding and extensive experience with the
Crown's armed forces.

As his Secretary of State for Defence Eckley had chosen James Hammond,
and MP for Glasgow. A former Royal Navy man who had commanded an
attack sub during the Bad Old Days of the Cold War, the PM had tapped
for two important reasons. First, Hammond's past career as a sub
skipper gave the man a no-nonsense attitude and a pension for doing
things with as much haste and efficiency as humanely possible. Second,
Hammond had served on the board of directors for BAE Systems and acted
as an advisor for both America's Raytheon and France's GIAT
Industries. That made him well connected in the circles of the global
defence market.

General Sir Richard Surridge was the Chief of the Defence Staff. He
had seen his first mission with the 1st Paras during the Falklands
War, served with the SAS in Iraq, advised NATO in Yugoslavia and held
field commands in both the Afghan and Iraq Wars. He was the most
senior and experienced commander in the British Army and had already
been on Blair's list to fill the post before Eckley had become PM.

"Thank you for meeting with us Mr. Prime Minister," began Hammond. As
Eckley had thus far let the MOD handle its own affairs with little
interference from Downing Street, it was usually the Secretary and the
CDS that took initiative to meet with him. "We have several things
we'd like to discuss, and a few proposals we'd like your input on."

"My signature you mean," joked Eckley. Hammond remained impassive but
Surridge seemed to find it a bit funny as well. It was important to
the PM that the military understand he let them run their own affairs
as much as he did because he felt they were more capable at it than
he, not due to disinterest. Surridge certainly understood that, and he
hoped Hammond did as well.

"To start off, Afghanistan," said General Surridge. "Operation Medusa
was a success in our opinion. It achieved most of its goals and dealt
a heavy blow to the Taliban. Much thanks should be sent to the
Canadians for all their help. And since we enjoyed a solid victory in
this campaign, the MOD wants to follow it up with a second offensive
against the Taliban as quickly as possible."

"That would require more manpower, and NATO had been reluctant to
provide more troops," said Eckley.

"We've gotten a commitment of over a thousand men from Poland, which
is actually quite a boost," replied Surridge. "Now we just have to
pressure the rest of the alliance enough to send more men. Iraq has
given them the jitters, and they're afraid Afghanistan will become the
same thing, despite the progress we've made."

"We're going to approach every NATO member individually and ask for
more manpower," said Hammond. "France, Germany, Spain, and Italy in
particular. I know the French and the Italians are probably a bit
upset with us at the moment, but that /should/ be immaterial to this
mission. Afghanistan is not Iraq. It was endorsed both by the North
Atlantic Council and the UN. And as General Surridge has pointed out,
we are making progress.

"From those four nations, we're going to ask for at least 500 more
combat soldiers. And if possible, special forces units. That would be
even better. Germany might be very reluctant to flex its military
muscle, but we'd actually like them to quietly send some KSK teams
rather than infantry. We will also approach nations outside of NATO.
Relations with India have been very strong recently, and we might be
able to talk them into sending troops. Brazil has been steadily
modernizing their army, and are another perspective contributor."

"Of course we'd like to lead by example," noted Surridge. "And with
your authorization, the Army will deploy the 3rd and 5th Battalions of
the Royal Scottish Regiment to Afghanistan."

Eckley's facial expression soured. "I would think being the second
largest contributor of combat forces was already 'leading by
example.'"

"Messages like this have to be strong ones," shrugged Hammond. "If we
are asking our allies to commit more, we have to show them we are
willing to do the same."

The PM was visibly displeased but gave a consenting nod. He hopped
this was all worth it.

"There are other forms of contributions that nations can make if they
are afraid to send combat forces," continued Hammond. "More
helicopters and transport aircraft would be a major boon to our
operations. This is  a field were nations like Germany or Japan, who
are a bit to nervous about overt combat operations, can help the ISAF
efforts."

Eckley could not shake himself of the feeling that Great Britain was
going into this alone. The Americans and the Canadians could honestly
say the lacked the manpower to continue contributing to the fight for
Afghanistan. But the rest of NATO seemed to be shying away from
finishing the mission. Poland, of all nations, were the only ones to
answer the NATO Secretary-Genera's call for more troops. What did that
say about the will of their allies?

"The next item on our list is purely logistical," said Hammond as
flipped through the tabs on his PDA. "The MOD has been doing some
thinking, and we would like to drop the FRES program and resume our
full participation in Boxer MRAV program. The MRAV is almost ready for
full-scale production, while the FRES is still in the design phase.
Really, there is no need to wait when the new Saxon replacement the
Army wants can be made available now.

"Last, is the Infantry Weapon Procurement Program. This is a big
hurdle we've been stumbling around since the 1980's. The L85 rifle
that is standard issue for our soldiers has been trouble since day
one. The SA80/L85A2 version that we've been using since 1996 addressed
some of the production shortcomings of the L85A1, but the ergonomic
and weight problems still persist. I'm sure you can see the difficulty
in this."

Eckley stared back blankly.

"Right," continued Hammond. "We want to contract Heckler & Koch to
allow BAE to start producing G36 rifles under licence for use by the
armed forces. It's a much more modern weapon, and I have to admit we
had it in mind during the start of the FIST program."

"Whatever you think is best," shrugged Eckley with a small laugh that
came out more like a sigh. "Again, I put absolute faith in your
judgement."
---

Actions:
1) Go to each and every NATO member, plus Japan, Brazil and India, and
ask for more combat soldiers in preparation for a second offensive
against the Taliban.
2) If nations are unwilling to commit troops, press them for air lift support.
3) Deploy the 3rd and 5th Battalions of the Royal Scottish Regiment to
Afghanistan for combat duty.
4) The MOD will cancel the FRES project and sign back into the Boxer
MRAV program, with the MRAV tapped to replace the Army's Saxon APCs
once production starts.
5) Contract HK to allow BAE to produce the G36 assault rifle under
license to replace the SA80 assault rifle.