Podcast S4 #051 Guns, Rockets & Training For War

Overview

The guest on this podcast is Neale Smiles, a former Gunner now working in the defence industry.  Neale was a professional soldier for 34 years specialising in MLRS and rose through the ranks to RSM before commissioning as a Captain then completing his time with the Colours as a Major. He often posts his thoughts on military matters on LinkedIn and it was one on the future of the Royal Artillery that got my attention. In it he stated that:

 “when you aren’t equipped or established to fight in the traditional combined arms manner you have to change” 

Discussion

On this episode Neale will set out the changes he feels the Army and specifically the Gunners should make and we discuss:

• The current state of the Army.
• How the Army should train and the use of simulation to enhance that training.
• Future soldier concept and the shift from close to deep battle.
• Moving close support artillery to the infantry to be owned by the infantry and how that would look.
• The RA to be a missile only deep effects organisation
• Use of UAS on the battle space.
• The challenges of recruitment.

Kev and I tackled something similar in podcast #045 where we discussed Ukraine.  Specifically the use of precision long range fires, the fact that the biggest killer on the battlespace still remains conventional artillery and that mass matters, finally we talked about the importance of the role of observed fire by soldiers on the ground amidst the over reliance in some instances of tech platforms such as UAS.

You can listen to that episode here:

The three things that matter in defence are reach, the ability to have a decisive impact on an enemy and cutting edge technology.  The UK in its current state can’t manage all three and this pod will focus on what is achievable in Neale’s opinion.

Finding The Podcast

Available on all major podcast platforms and YouTube or listen on Spotify.

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