02 Jul 14. Defence Committee – NEW INQUIRY – FUTURE FORCE 2020. The Defence Committee announces a major new inquiry into Future Force 2020. This follows the Committee’s earlier work looking at the Future Army 2020. The 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review set out the Government’s plans for the Armed Forces called Future Force 2020. The Committee is particularly concerned about the relevance, size and quality of the Armed Forces. As the Chief of the Defence Staff said recently: “Our approach has been through an equipment lens which has emphasised technical overmatch in force-on-force conflict. And whilst exquisite technology has been projected as the key to operational superiority, manpower has been seen more as an overhead and activity levels have been squeezed.” This Committee is particularly interested in examining. The impact on the plans for Future Force 2020 of the challenging global political and security context, including in Ukraine, the Middle East and Africa; the changing size, structures and priorities of other international forces including those of the UK’s usual allies; and decisions on Scottish independence.
* Whether the implementation of Future Force 2020 will provide the flexible, agile and operationally capable force required, in particular, examining:
*The critical mass for each arm of Service which will ensure the maintenance of an adequate intellectual, organisational and equipment base which can be expanded as needed to meet threats as they arise, as well as providing for the deployment of an effective immediate response;
*The mechanisms and procedures which will enable the Armed Forces, in the face of a growing threat, to ramp up in capability and capacity and to ramp down when the crisis is past;
*The assessment and analysis which will give the maximum possible notice of impending threats and a command and control system to manage the whole process;
*The recruitment, retention, appointment, training and education of the appropriate number and quality of regular and reserve personnel to feed the above process;
*The integration of regulars, reservists and contractors;
*The role of the regular reserve;
*The integration of the three Services and Joint Forces Command to ensure the optimum generation and sustainment of capability; and
*The development of the contingent capacity and overall resilience to regenerate the Armed Forces and to meet future requirements.
*The impact of the Levene Reforms on the Armed Forces, in particular, how the Joint Forces Command (JFC) will operate with the other three Services on operations and in providing contingent capability and the effect of the delegation of budgets to the three Services and JFC for equipment and other expenditure.
* The costs of the reforms.
Written submissions
The Committee would welcome written evidence to this inquiry. The deadline for submissions is Friday 5 September 2014.
Where to submit your written evidence
The House of Commons has a new system for receiving written evidence. It should no longer be sent to the Committee’s email address. Written submissions for this inquiry should be submitted via the Future Force inquiry page on the Defence Committee website. As a guideline submissions should state clearly who the submission is from e.g. ‘Written evidence submitted by xxxx’ and be no longer than 3000 words, please contact the Committee staff if you wish to discuss this. Submissions must be a self-contained memorandum in Word or Rich Text Format (not PDFs). Paragraphs should be numbered for ease of reference and the document should, if possible, include an executive summary. Submissions should be original work, not previously published or circulated elsewhere. Once submitted, your submission becomes the property of the Committee and no public use should be made of it unless you have first obtained permission from the Clerk of the Committee. Please bear in mind that Committees are not able to investigate individual cas