Will the Chief of Army’s Chief of Staff Respond?

On 20 July 25, a letter was posted to Brigadier Matthew Campbell, the Chief of Army’s Chief of Staff.

The letter requested the opportunity for two veterans from 1st Armoured Regiment to meet with the CA to discuss the fact that, after 75 years’ service to the nation, the unit (without warning) was stripped of its tanks and given a new role as a non-combatant.

Agreeing to the meeting will provide an opportunity for the following to be explained:

• Why 1 Armd Regt was stripped of its tanks and made a non-combatant, rather than creating a new unit for the role?
• Whether or not any units apart from 1 Armd Regt were considered for the role; if so, which units were they?
• Whether or not 1 Armd Regt’s new role is to be a permanent one (in terms of current thinking)?
• If it is not permanent, how long is it to last?
• Whether or not 3 Brigade’s missing tank squadron, cavalry squadron and battle group headquarters, is a permanent consequence of 1 Armd Regt’s new role; if not, will the 2025 RAAC Corps Conference recommendation to raise a new headquarters to command 3 Brigade’s tanks, be adopted?
• Whether or not the role of the RAAC is to be changed from “locate, identify, capture and destroy the enemy, by day or night, in combination with other arms, using fire and manoeuvre” to include the non-combatant Combat Experimentation Group (CXG); if so, what wording is to be used?
• The Chief of the Defence Force has said that 1 Armd Regt will “continue to carry the Standard presented by King Charles III”; how can this happen when the Standard was presented on the basis of 1 Armd Regt being a tank regiment (the equivalent of a Dragoon Guards unit in the early days of the British Army)? As the unit is no longer a tank regiment, there is no entitlement to retain the Standard.
• Was 1 Armd Regt selected to be the CXG in order to save money in the Defence budget by reducing RAAC operating costs and manning numbers?

Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Cameron, MC, RAAC (Ret’d)

 

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