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INTRODUCTION 1. the Irish Defence Forces Must Strive to Build And

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INTRODUCTION 1. the Irish Defence Forces Must Strive to Build And Chairman Commission on the Defence Forces 19 March 2021 PRIVATE SUBMISSION TO THE COMMISSION ON THE DEFENCE FORCES INTRODUCTION 1. The Irish Defence Forces must strive to build and maintain modern military capabilities at Battalion level and below with brigade and divisional level supporting elements. The Defence Forces has the ability to easily meet NATO standards of capability and interoperability however these must be supported with sufficient logistical and training support in order to achieve this. 2. It is the firm belief of this author that while hygiene factors such as pay and conditions are essential in order to stem the current retention crisis in the Defence Forces, the main reason for the current exodus is the lack of support to personnel to perform their duties to the level that they wish to achieve. Defence Forces units in successive reorganisations have been reduced in size without a taking a holistic view of the tasks they were expected to perform or the minimum numbers necessary to fulfil those tasks. 3. The Infantry corps has always been the backbone of the army and must retain this primary role however, as the army has downsized, combat support and service support units, as smaller units, have been excessively impacted in terms of capability, leaving the army below critical mass to provide the support they have been tasked with. In order to revive and expand these capabilities there is a requirement to rebalance the ratio of combat to combat support/service support assets within the army in line with other modern forces. 4. This paper focuses primarily on the army and recognises that there are Justifiable requirements to increase the size and capability of both the Naval Service and Air Corps. Also recognising that strength increases cannot be achieved without the necessary budgets, this submission discusses one brigade and the requirements therein as well as those capabilities required above and brigade level. Where resources exist for the formation of more than one brigade, they should follow the same structure. It is essential, however, that unit sizes are not reduced in order to increase numbers of brigades. CORPS CAPABILITIES AND STRUCTURES 5. Infantry – Since the first deployment to UNMIL in Liberia in 2003, Ireland has consistently deployed mechanised forces overseas, however all home infantry battalions are light role with the bare minimum of motorised transport with the exception of one mechanised company. All Infantry Battalions should contain one mechanised company so that each has the organic capability to raise and train as a mechanised force. Given the probable procurement of a Multiple Role Vessel for the Naval Service, consideration should also be given to the established an Amphibious Infantry Battalion that would retain conventional infantry capabilities while specialising in operating in the littoral domain. Current capabilities within Infantry Battalions should be maintained and modernised with modern light weight fire control systems as well as provision of micro–Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) for reconnaissance. 6. Cavalry – The primary role of Irish cavalry units is that of medium reconnaissance, in that sphere, the cavalry corps should be increased in size relative to Infantry units in order to develop a full range of reconnaissance capabilities at medium to long range including integrated fire support and UAV teams. Increasing Cavalry Squadrons to Regiments with two reconnaissance squadron and one support squadron with enhanced fire support plus a medium range UAV capability would allow the cavalry corps to more effectively fulfil its primary and secondary roles at home while also providing this corps with the critical mass to sustain corps specific deployments overseas such as supporting Initial and Early Entry Forces in support along with Army Ranger Wing (ARW) as well as more sustained involvement overseas in areas such as long range reconnaissance or bringing specialist skills to monitoring and observation missions. The current deployment to UNDOF is an example of a mission that could be cavalry lead provided they possessed the sufficient strength and establishment to sustain. Above Brigade level, the cavalry require a tracked medium – long range capability to provide mobile and protected capability to delay and attrit forces, ideally suited to an armoured force. Provision of a tracked capability at Sqn + level is a requirement in order to ensure the army has the capability, although limited, to engage in retrograde actions against armoured forces. 7. Artillery – This is an essential capability without which, it would be impossible for the Defence Forces to fulfil its primary role. Previous conflicts have demonstrated that there is rarely time to build this as a ‘Just-In-Time’ capability. Therefore the Defence Forces must maintain a strong capability to provide close fire support to its manoeuvre units. With this in mind while also aligning with NATO standards as a benchmark, artillery regiments should be sized to have at least two gun batteries and ideally one per battalion within the supported brigade. The brigade should also have integral air defence in the form of missile based Short Range Air Defence (SHORAD) for its own protection. A larger artillery corps can support Ireland’s objectives overseas by deploying small units with niche specialised capabilities to peace support operations in the area of ISTAR, Counter-UAV and low level air tracking or weapon tracking radar. Above Brigade level there is a requirement for longer range air defences for protection of vital installations on island. 8. Engineers – In most modern armed forces, engineers make up at least 10% of the force. The current establishment within the Irish Defence Forces is less than 5%. Each field engineer company of 100 personnel is currently expected to be capable of field engineering, obstacle emplacement, construction of field fortifications, combat bridging, road construction, demolitions, mine warfare, assault boating, water purification and supply, CBRN decontamination, Advanced Search as well as maintaining all Defence Forces infrastructure within its formation and providing firefighting capabilities in the Curragh Camp and Casement Aerodrome. They maintain many specialist operator qualifications, in addition to their primary construction trade qualifications such as chainsaws, mine clearance vehicles, mobile trackway, UAV and many items of advanced specialist search equipment. Due to the limited size of the corps, it has not been possible to allocate specific capabilities to specific units. In order to be able to support fully deployable infantry battalions as well as cavalry and artillery regiments, and maintain these capabilities at an adequate level it is recommended that engineer units within a brigade should contain and Battalion headquarters with at least two field engineer companies along with a large support company. Above Brigade level, an Engineer Support Battalion would hold a bridging company along with other niche capabilities such as a CBRN company with troops for all arms. This unit would also subsume the planning and design work currently undertaken by the Engineering Branch in DFHQ, working with all formations to ensure consistency of effort across the whole Defence Forces in the upgrade and maintenance of civilian infrastructure. 9. Communications and Information Systems – In a world with increased digitisation, CIS units at Brigade level must have the technical skills to operate at this level. Specialisation must be increased beyond radio systems with all CIS soldiers working on IT networks. A Cyber Defence capability is also essential at this level with a larger IT support and Electronic Warfare (EW) including cyber defence and offence capability above brigade level. 10. Transport and Vehicle Maintenance – The current size of the Transport and Vehicle Maintenance (TVM) corps is inadequate to properly maintain the Defence Forces fleet of vehicles. While it may be possible to outsource this to civilian contracts, this does not support the requirement to maintain this capability when deployed overseas. As such, the Defence Forces must maintain a fleet management and maintenance capability up to 3rd line repair to ensure that deployed fleets can be maintained in environments where contractor support is unavailable. This proposal would require substantial capital investment in vehicle fleets and this corps should be at least doubled in size in order to maintain the increased fleet while maintaining its heavy lift capacity. 11. Ordnance – The ordnance corps must be able to maintain its current Improvised Explosive Device Disposal (IEDD) capability at its current high level. With the increasing sophistication of weapons, ammunition, optronics and autonomous systems, the current establishment must be increased in order to provide the required support to ensure these systems are ready for deployment when required. Maintaining capabilities at NATO standard will also require enhanced training and therefore increased use of ammunition which consequently increases the requirement for ammunition technical specialists. 12. Medical – The recent pandemic has clearly demonstrated the requirement to enhance the capabilities of the medical corps. Each brigade should be equipped and able to deploy field hospitals to support its formation. It is envisaged that there would be a requirement for a substantial reserve element to man these hospitals with the appropriate specialist capabilities but the
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