Politics.co.uk

Williams: Reservists can transform armed forces

Williams: Reservists can transform armed forces

Lt Col Richard Williams, a former commander of the SAS, suggests cost-cutting measures for the strategic defence and security review on the Today programme:

“In my own experience, the highest end of special operations activity conducted in Iraq and Afghanistan, 40% of them were National Guardsman [US reservists].

“The fact that they cost broadly… one fifth of a regular capability to maintain… you can see there are advantages.

[On the decline of reservists]: “The moment you start cutting people’s money to train and giving them full unit roles, morale and recruiting suffers and numbers go down.

“Across society the younger civilians… are much quicker at picking up information technology systems and concepts than those who’ve been drilled in armoured warfare on the north German plains. We might find that we’re able to pull in just the type of potential for a transformation of the armed forces that we need.”